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| James Thomas Long |
07/13/2011
By Francine Sawyer
A former officer for the state Department of Correction in Vanceboro has been convicted of two counts of first-degree sex offense with a child under 13 and one count of first-degree rape of a child under 13.
It was the second time James Thomas Long was convicted of the charges.
Superior Court Judge Jay Hockenbury sentenced Long to 51 years in prison. The first time Long was sentenced to 55 years.
Long was found guilty by a Craven County jury Feb. 14, 2008. Long appealed his conviction to the N.C. Court of Appeals. The court overturned the conviction April 7, 2009, ruling the trial judge committed prejudicial error in his response to the jury request to have the testimony of the defendant and the victim read back to them in court.
The high court ruled that the trial superior court judge, Judge W. Allen Cobb Jr., did not use the words “in my discretion I am denying the request and you are to rely on your recollection of the testimony.” According to the ruling, the judge instead stated that the court reporter did not have the technology to immediately produce the testimony to be available for the jury.
The appellate court overturned the conviction and remanded it for a new trial.
The case was retried in Craven County Superior Court last week. The same evidence was offered in the retrial and the victim, a young child, testified again.
Assistant district attorney Karen Hobbs and Craven County Sheriff’s Office investigator Sgt. John Whitfield worked for the state.
Long testified that he never had sex with the child. During the investigation he gave a written confession that he had sex with the child. A medical examiner testified that the girl had been sexually abused.
Whitfield said the assaults occurred over a period from 2000 to 2002, ending when the child was 7 years old.
“We are pleased the defendant has once again been found guilty by a jury and that he has received a long prison sentence,” District Attorney Scott Thomas said. “The victim deserved justice and we continued to pursue the case even in light of the appellate court ruling. Assistant District Attorney Hobbs and investigator Whitfield are to be commended for their good work and persistence on this case.”
