Pair Sentenced After Child Sex Abuse Files Fall Out of Walls

Father and son sentenced to lengthy prison terms following renovation at their former home
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 10, 2025 10:59 AM CST
Pair Sentenced After Child Sex Abuse Files Fall Out of Walls
Theodore Smith, left, and James Smith.   (Cherokee County, Texas via NYT)

A father and son convicted of multiple child sex crimes after damning photographs and video tapes fell out of walls at their former property have been sentenced. Theodore Smith, 90, was sentenced to 100 years in prison last month after pleading no contest to 11 counts of committing forcible lewd acts on a child and three counts of lewd acts on a child, Sacramento County District Attorney's Office said Tuesday. His son, 66-year-old James Smith, was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison after pleading no contest to two counts of committing lewd acts on a child, reports the New York Times. The sheriff's office described the crimes as "absolutely sickening," per KCRA.

The Smiths were living in Alto, Texas, when they were arrested in October 2021. A renovation on an outbuilding at their former longtime home in Orangevale, Calif., had exposed polaroid photos and video tapes showing children being sexually abused by adults between 1985 and 1995, authorities said. Investigators were able to identify an unknown number of victims, who'd "never told anyone about the abuse other than their spouses," according to the district attorney's office. All "were under 5 years old when the abuse began, and it continued for the majority of their first decade in life," the statement said.

Investigators traced the files to the Smiths, who'd lived at the home for more than 40 years. A search of their Texas home turned up more child sexual abuse material, reports the Folsom Times. Theodore Smith's charges dated back to 1988 as California's statute of limitations prevented charges for crimes committed before that date. James Smith's charges dated back to 1993. He mostly recently molested a victim after 2010, the district attorney's office said. Held at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, he will be eligible for parole in 23 years. His father is held at the Sacramento County Main Jail, per the New York Times. (More child sex abuse stories.)

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