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Left: Johnny James. Right: Kayla Clarke (Washington County Jail)
An Oklahoma judge on Wednesday handed down stiff sentences to a couple who tied down a 15-year-old girl to a tree for three days because they felt she “could not be trusted.”
Johnny James, 41, received 35 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to child abuse and neglect. His girlfriend Kayla Clark, 42, will be behind bars for 30 years after she pleaded guilty to child neglect and enabling abuse, Tulsa Fox affiliate KOKI reported. Per Lori Fullbright of local CBS affiliate KOTV, the victim is now with a foster family and had the opportunity to make a victim impact statement during the sentencing hearing.
As Law&Crime previously reported, deputies from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office responded on July 28 to a home in Vera, a small town in northeast Oklahoma about 25 miles north of Tulsa, for a child abuse complaint, a probable cause arrest said.
A woman told deputies a 15-year-old girl was tied up in the backyard and needed medical attention, with “a hole in her leg and lesions on her arms,” the affidavit said. The 911 caller said the girl had been there for three days and the caller was sneaking her food. The 15-year-old girl and her family were visiting from Texas, per cops. Deputies responded to the home and beside a red shed and a chicken coop they saw the 15-year-old girl sitting on a rectangular piece of carpet, leaning over at the waist with a bandage below her knee and a “ratchet-style tie down strap around her,” according to the affidavit.
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Cops spoke with a witness who the 15-year-old identified as her nana. The woman at first “did not want to be truthful” and said she did not know about the girl’s condition, according to deputies. But she then allegedly admitted to knowing what was going on but was “too afraid” of James to say anything.
James arrived home and immediately told deputies he tied her up because “she cannot be trusted and likes to lie,” the affidavit said. He reportedly said she was not tied down long, maybe an hour while he was gone. James told deputies she was tied down on two separate occasions.
“Johnny explained the times she is left outside was to go to the store or church this morning due to her peeing and pooping on herself and not wanting it inside so they sat her outside that way there is no mess,” the affidavit said. “When Johnny was asked, he stated this was the only option to keep her restrained because he did not know what else to do to help her.”
James said he attributes the disciplinary issues to the girl wanting to live with her mother. He also told deputies he “sees now he will need to figure out another solution” besides tying her down.
When police asked Clark about the 15-year-old being tied with the ratchet strap, she responded that “she was taking a shower and did not know anything took place,” and did not see her sitting outside when they left for church that morning because she was too “frazzled,” the affidavit states.
First responders took the girl to the hospital. The Department of Human Services took custody of the girl, along with other children who were in the home, the Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise reported.
