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Husband, wife each sentenced in child sexual abuse

Gaston Gazette - 2/7/2020

For failing to stop the sexual abuse going on under his roof, Lewis Kenneth Jones will spend a little more than four years in prison.

Jones lived in a home on Roseboro Road in Grover with his wife, Tammy Curtis Jones, when they were arrested in August. Both were charged with child abuse involving a sex act. Each pleaded guilty this week in Cleveland County Superior Court.

While living together, the couple allowed three men varying in age from 22 to 28 to stay and sleep in the same room as a girl who lived in the home beginning when she was 11 years old.

By the age of 12, the child had given birth to a child.

Lewis and Tammy Jones were both aware that the men were having sex with the minor, but Lewis Jones verbally objected. He failed to back up any of those objections with action.

His aversion to the abuse made him only slightly less culpable than his wife, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.

Lewis Jones is illiterate, has a brain tumor and some mental health problems, though those factors would not be enough to help in his defense, attorneys said in court.

The 48-year-old man accepted a plea offer Wednesday. He pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to just over four years in prison.

Tammy Jones, 55, pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to serve a little more than five years in prison.

Twenty-eight-year-old Timothy Douglas Robbins previously pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree forcible sex offense and 2nd-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. He is serving a minimum of seven years in prison.

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(c)2020 Gaston Gazette, Gastonia, N.C.

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