New homeowner finds child sexual abuse material in walls, leading to sentencing of father and son

SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. (TCN) -- A 90-year-old father and his 66-year-old son will likely spend the rest of their lives behind bars for sexual acts they committed on children in the '80s and '90s.

According to a Jan. 7 news release from the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office, a judge sentenced Theadore Smith to 100 years in prison and his son, James Smith, to 23 years to life in prison.

In November, Theadore Smith pleaded no contest to 11 counts of committing forcible lewd acts upon a child and three counts of lewd acts upon a child. James Smith pleaded no contest to two counts of committing lewd acts upon a child. As part of their plea, the defendants admitted to aggravating factors, including being in a position of trust and that their crimes took planning and sophistication. 

Investigators first learned about the child sexual assaults after a person purchased an Orangevale residence where Theadore Smith and his son had lived for over four decades. In 2021, the person who bought the home renovated an outbuilding when they discovered explicit Polaroid photos and video tapes showing child abuse material from the '80s and '90s that came out from the wall. The citizen reported it to law enforcement, and detectives located the victims, who were adults at the time of the discovery.

The homeowner told KCRA-TV, "It was homemade pictures, and I could tell that the contents were not something that I should be involved in at all."

According to prosecutors, "The victims were under 5 years old when the abuse began, and it continued for the majority of their first decade in life." The victims never reported the abuse and didn't tell anyone about it other than their spouses.

The district attorney's office noted that even though investigators recovered video and photographic evidence of the molestation, "the criminal law statute of limitations prohibited charges for the abuse that occurred prior to 1988."

Theadore Smiths's charges are from 1988, and James Smith's stem from 1993. Prosecutors believe some of their crimes "involved a conspiracy between James and Theadore Smith."

James Smith reportedly molested another victim after 2010.

Authorities arrested the defendants in Texas, where they had been living, and found additional child sexual abuse material at their home and property. James Smith was reportedly located in a car on his way back to California with child sexual abuse material in his possession.

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