By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-10 00:03:27 | Updated at 2025-01-10 07:28:37
7 hours ago
Polaroids hidden for decades in the walls of a California home have led to a father and son being sentenced to lengthy prison terms.
The horrifying photos, taken between 1985 and 1995, showed children under the age of 14 being sexually abused by Theodore Smith, now 90, and his son, James Smith, 66, according to the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office.
They were finally uncovered in 2021, when a new homeowner was renovating an outbuilding on their Orangevale property - where the Smiths had lived for more than 40 years before they moved to Texas.
'It was homemade pictures, and I could tell that the contents were not something that I should be involved in at all,' the new homeowner told KCRA at the time.
'The first call I made was to the sheriff's department.'
Detectives were then able to track down the children in the photos. The victims, now adults, 'never told anyone about the abuse other than their spouses,' the District Attorney's Office said.
They were all under the age of five when the abuse began 'and it continued for the majority of their first decade in life,' it continued.
Once the Smiths were identified as people of interest, their new home in rural Alto, Texas, was searched - and authorities say they uncovered even more child sex abuse material there.
Theodore Smith, now 90, and his son, James Smith, 66, received lengthy prison sentences after the person who bought their California uncovered Polaroids showing children being sexually abused
Unfortunately, the statute of limitations had passed for crimes committed before 1988, but prosecutors said there was enough evidence from after that year to bring criminal charges.
The father and son were then taken into custody in October 2021, when authorities found James in a vehicle en route to California.
There were even more child sexual abuse materials in his possession at the time, the district attorney's office said.
It remains unclear how many children were abused at the Smiths' hands, and how the father and son knew the children.
But they admitted in court that they were in a position of trust, and confessed that their crimes took planning and sophistication.
The 90-year-old Theodore then pleaded guilty to 11 counts of committing forcible lewd acts on a child and three counts of lewd acts on a child, and was sentenced to 100 years behind bars at the Sacramento County Main Jail.
James also pleaded no contest to two counts of committing lewd acts upon a child, and was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison at Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center.
