Judge finds Billings man guilty of 30-year child sex crimes

(Press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office)

GREAT FALLS — A federal district judge today found a Billings man, formerly of Hays, guilty of multiple crimes, including child sexual abuse and molestation, attempted sex trafficking, child pornography and other crimes dating back about 30 years on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and in Billings, U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said.

After a three-day trial that began on September 9, U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris found the defendant, James Kirby King, 58, guilty on 17 counts in a 25-count superseding indictment that alleged various sexual assault and child abuse offenses against six separate victims. The court found King not guilty on eight counts.

“The years of horror of sexual abuse and trauma that King inflicted on his victims, most of whom were children when he began his attacks, are unimaginable. King unreasonably sought out vulnerable children to exploit to satisfy his own desires and caused them a lifetime of pain. May these sentences serve as a benchmark for justice for them. Protecting children from predators like King is our office’s top priority and I am deeply grateful to our prosecution team, the FBI, Fort Belknap Law Enforcement and Great Falls Police Department for their extraordinary work on this horrific case,” said U.S. Attorney Laslovich.

FBI

The government alleged in court documents and at trial that King was a prolific sex offender who for decades abused Montana’s most vulnerable and marginalized Native Americans by molesting, sexually assaulting, drugging, trafficking, and exploiting any defenseless person, regardless of their gender, age, or biological relationship. At trial, the government presented evidence that led to convictions for crimes against victims identified as Jane Doe 1, Jane Doe 2, Jane Doe 3, Jane Doe 4, Jane Doe 10, and other victims. Some of the victims were under the age of 12 at the time, some were under the age of 16, and some were adults. Most of the conduct occurred on the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation, where King lived, and in Billings, where King had most recently lived. The alleged conduct began as early as 1992 and continued until his arrest in 2023.

As alleged in court documents, King repeatedly molested, drugged, abused, and sexually exploited Jane Doe 1 for more than a decade. Her first memory of the abuse was when she was five years old in 1996. Around 1994 or 1995, when Jane Doe 2 was 14 years old, King gave her a small amount of alcohol at his residence and she “completely went blank.” Jane Doe 2 later awoke to find King kneeling between her legs and taking photographs of her exposed vagina. Additionally, King attempted to sexually exploit Jane Doe 3 on numerous occasions and forced her to perform numerous sex acts, both as a child and later as an adult on the Fort Belknap Reservation and in Billings. King drugged and raped Jane Doe 4 on the Fort Belknap Reservation when she was in her 20s and he was in his 40s. And King attempted to forcibly sex-trade Jane Doe 10 in October 2023.

The court found King guilty of:

• Aggravated sexual abuse of a child, one charge
• Incest, two counts
• Sexual exploitation of children, three charges
• Aggravated sexual abuse by rendering the victim unconscious or sedating the victim, two charges
• Sexual abuse, two charges
• Attempted serious sexual abuse by rendering the victim unconscious or sedating him, one charge
• Attempted sexual abuse, one charge
• Sexual abuse of a minor, one charge
• Aggravated sexual abuse with violence, one charge
• Attempted possession with intent to sell child pornography in Indian Country, one count
• Possession of child pornography in Indian Country, one charge
• Attempted sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, one charge

King faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years to life parole, in addition to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years to life for the crimes of child sexual exploitation and attempted sex trafficking by coercion.
The court will determine a possible sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Sentencing was set for January 15, 2025. King remained in custody pending further proceedings.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. The FBI, Fort Belknap Law Enforcement and Great Falls Police Department conducted the investigation.