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An Iowa court has decided not to give any jail time to a white Iowa teenager who live streamed himself raping a toddler.
Kraigen Grooms, 19, pled guilty to raping a 2-year-old girl in April 2013 as another man watched and recorded the sexual abuse. Investigators concluded that the assault was premeditated and that before he was caught, Groom had been planning a similar attack against a 3-year-old boy.
“It’s sad, he is such a young kid,†said Tim Caya, whose website MissingCases.com helped police to identify Grooms. “Usually when you hear about this, it is old guys. It makes you wonder what was going on in his life to get him to this. I’m glad I helped catch him, but it makes you wonder about what is going on these days with kids doing this at such a young age.â€
When Grooms was arrested in March 2014, he was initially charged with second-degree sexual abuse, a class B felony with a max penalty of 25 years in prison. He pled guilty to one count of engaging in a lascivious act with a child, and Judge Myron Gookin decided not to require any prison time of him.
Grooms will only receive five years of supervised release with a potential 10-year suspended sentence if he breaks parole. He will, however, be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Authorities have made a point to report that Grooms has undergone two mental health evaluations during his two year custody in the years leading up to his trial.
Grooms is just the latest case to make headlines for its lenient treatment of young white rapists. Former Stanford student Brock Turner was just released from a three months sentence for raping an unconscious woman behind a dumpster, and last month University of Colorado student Austin James Wilkerson received only probation and 2 years in a county jail for raping a drunk woman he was supposed to be caring for. (Wilkerson will be released from jail as his work and school demands require.) Comparable examples by black assailants consistently landed them 5-15 years in prison.
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