FARGO - United States Attorney
Drew Wrigley announced that on March 11, 2008, Norris
James Lohnes of Fort
Totten, North Dakota, was sentenced before United States District
Court Judge Rodney S. Webb for aggravated sexual abuse and sexual
abuse of a child. Lohnes becomes of the first
defendant sentenced in North Dakota under the federal Adam Walsh
Act.
Lohnes , 23, was found guilty by a 12-person
jury on September 21, 2007, of forcing a 7-year-old female child
to engage in sexual contact between his penis and the mouth of
the child. The incident occurred in September of 2006 on the
Spirit Lake Indian Reservation.
Judge Webb sentenced Lohnes to
30 years in federal prison, to be followed by a lifetime of court
supervision. Lohnes was
ordered to pay a $200 special assessment to the Crime Victim's
Fund.
U.S. Attorney Drew Wrigley issued the following statement regarding Lohnes’ sentencing:
“Norris Lohnes was 21 years old when he committed the
aggravated sexual abuse of a 7-year-old child in this case. Lohnes’ 30
year federal sentence will be served without the possibility
of parole, and it reflects this simple judgment: our communities
have had enough.
To
all those who are now sexually abusing a child or who may consider
doing so in the future, the message is clear: children are
not sex objects, and predators who gratify themselves by raping,
assaulting or sexualizing kids will be dealt with harshly in
federal court. That’s the promise of the Adam Walsh
Act and that’s the promise of the decades in federal prison
that the Act requires.”