Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols’s sentencing this morning of 27-year-old Angel Sexton to six years in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old relative visiting during Christmas was expected. It was reported here on Jan. 12. A victim-impact statement by the child’s mother was less expected, its starkness even less so.
“She’s agreeable to the sentence,” Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark said before the mother spoke, and before the judge pronounced the sentence. But the mother wanted the statement to be part of the record.
“The assault on my child has changed the course of our lives and several others severely,” she said, addressing the court by zoom. Her family was visiting Palm Coast from Kentucky around Christmas 2024, staying with Sexton’s family in the R-Section. The visit was in preparation for a move to Florida
“We were looking forward to being surrounded by family, true family, a family promise to my children, a family different than they had ever experienced in their entire lives,” she said, “a family that made them a priority, was trustworthy, gave them the attention they deserved, protected them and wouldn’t hurt them. Instead, my child was groomed, lied to, manipulated, used, assaulted, lied on and abandoned.”
Sexton and the boy spent a lot of time together, shopping, listening to music, and nothing appeared amiss until the family returned to Kentucky. There, the mother found troubling text messages, including one from Sexton saying she would leave her husband to be with the 13-year-old, who could emancipate himself from his family at 16. The boy revealed that she had assaulted him, prompting the mother to contact the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office.
“Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, faith, happiness and togetherness and laughter, but now our memories of Christmas are skewed with hurt, anger, confusion, disappointment and trauma,” the mother told the court. “My child not only had to deal with having his heart broken, but has also had to try to navigate the confusion, anger and betrayal of being convinced someone was in love with him, who wasn’t. His trust with adults has forever been broken. He has nightmares, tons of grief and heartache followed by anger and confusion to the point he’s had to be pulled out of school. He can’t focus. He gets overwhelmed because he will never have the answers of why him, why the lies, why the manipulation, and why the people that promise to protect him love him and treat him like family didn’t and haven’t.”
The boy has developed further health issues attributed to the incidents, compounding what had been severe, preexisting health complications that required several surgeries, procedures, testing and visits to specialists. “Watching the torment he suffered from this has been so much worse,” his mother said of the matter with Sexton.
His younger brother has watched his sibling “spiral” without understanding what he’s seeing or why his brother has changed so much, just as he, too, was robbed of the opportunity to have relationships with his cousins. He’d been the most excited to move to Florida “to finally experience what true family looks and feels like, having cousins to grow up with, and aunts and uncles that cared about him and wanted to be a part of his life.” The letdown has been overwhelming.
“I’m a survivor of sexual assault myself. I know firsthand the lifelong effects it has on someone,” the mother said, “but mine was not a family member, and I didn’t lose what little family I had, and I didn’t have to deal with the feelings of betrayal, the blatant disregard for me, my siblings or my parents, or the absolute disappointment of being lied to, lied on and abandoned, while having to learn to deal with my trauma. I pray no other child, no other family, has to go through what we have been through. We didn’t deserve this. My son didn’t deserve this.”
Throughout, Sexton stood at the lectern before the judge, in a light blue hoodie, her last item of civilian clothing before her booking, listening to her relative speak. The mother spoke of counseling for her children and her hope that her children will forgive those who hurt them (she spoke in the plural on that account, both about her children and “those that have hurt them and lied to them”).
She asked the court to forbid Sexton from being around other children. Sexton has been designated a sex offender for life. She is to serve nine years of sex offender probation once released from state prison. Probation terms are lengthy and strict, and include a prohibition on non-supervised contact with children, or on employment or volunteering anywhere where children tend to gather, and even on living in proximity to schools, parks and day care centers.
The mother spoke of the hurt and pain Sexton’s actions have caused to so many. “Several relationships have been damaged, some beyond repair, relationships my children and I and others wanted and needed, relationships the elders in our family requested to be grown and developed before they left this earth,” she said. “I hope that one day, Angel will realize, truly realize, the severity of what she has done to all of us and to show remorse and ask for forgiveness.”
Sexton herself at no point, during her plea hearing last December or during her sentencing this morning, addressed the court to say more than “yes, ma’am,” to the judge. The plea was negotiated between Clark, the prosecutor, and Courtney Davison, the assistant public defender, so the sentence was set. Defendants are always more voluble when it’s an open plea–when the sentencing terms aren’t set, and it’s entirely up to the judge to set them. In a negotiated plea, defendants tend to take a “why bother” approach, and stay silent.
Abuse Hotline: Report Abuse Online
The Florida Abuse Hotline accepts reports 24 hours a day and 7 days a week of known or suspected child abuse, neglect, or abandonment and reports of known or suspected abuse, neglect, or exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Please use the links below to report a child or adult abuse.
If you suspect or know of a child or vulnerable adult in immediate danger, call 911.
TEL: 1-800-962-2873
FAX: 1-800-914-0004
Any person who knows, or has reasonable cause to suspect, that a child is abused, abandoned, or neglected by a parent, legal custodian, caregiver, or other person responsible for the child’s welfare is a mandatory reporter. § 39.201(1)(a), Florida Statutes.
To report an allegation in Spanish or Creole, please call 1-800-962-2873, for TTY use 711 or 1-800-955-8771. This toll free number is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with counselors waiting to assist you.
JimboXYZ says
They should have played this music for her walk up for sentencing like the y do when a MLB hitter approaches home plate for their at bat.
Atwp says
Feel bad for the 13 year old. Just call Trump, he will probably get you out of prison, you are a white woman. White society built the prison system for African Americans, to keep us in our place. It wasn’t built for prissy piss white women.
Nick Mullen says
When 13 does 50 they have to be put somewhere. Shrug.
JimboXYZ says
“Sexton and the boy spent a lot of time together, shopping, listening to music, and nothing appeared amiss until the family returned to Kentucky. There, the mother found troubling text messages, including one from Sexton saying she would leave her husband to be with the 13-year-old, who could emancipate himself from his family at 16.”
This is a just a face palming moment, the real head scratcher, that there’s a 27 year old woman out there that formulates those thought processes & then would actually put forth the effort to text another that message ?
R.S. says
Actually, I’ve always felt sorry that something nice like that never happened to me when I was a blossoming 13-year-old.