Gentry sentenced to 68 years in prison

 

For sexual exploitation of minors

 

From Staff Reports

 

SEVIERVILLE-Kevin Allen Gentry, 37, of Sevier County,received a total sentence of 63 years in prison and total fines of $330,000Tuesday in Sevier County Circuit Court after being convicted April 24 of 12counts of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor as well as 10counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

According to a press release from Fourth JudicialDistrict Attorney General Jimmy Dunn, Detective Matthew Chubberly of the SevierCounty Sheriff's Office had served a search warrant in 2005 on Gentry'sresidence and recovered computer equipment. Melvin Pierce, an agent withKnoxville Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children divisiondiscovered images involving Gentry, at the time in his early 30s, involved insex acts with multiple girls under the age of 16.

Other images revealed minor females posed in the nude atGentry's home. A Sevier County jury deliberated approximately two hours beforereturning 22 guilty verdicts. Assistant DA Jeremy Ball prosecuted the case.

Sevier County Circuit Court Judge Richard R. Vancesentenced Gentry to 38 years in prison on the exploitation charges. Judge Vanceordered the sentence to run consecutively to the 25-year sentence Gentry wasalready serving after a child rape conviction in 2007, which involved a9-year-old girl, according to the release.

Gentry had originally fled after being charged with childrape in 2005. He was arrested Aug. 16, 2005, by U.S. Marshals in Bennettsville,S.C.-four months after allegedly faking his death off the coast of Nags Head,N.C.

Gentry's family had paid to publish his obituary in theAug. 5, 2005, edition of The Newport Plain Talk. Gentry, who also has relativesliving in the Newport area, had reportedly been on the run for more than a yearwith a 16-year-old girl who had apparently run away from a Morristown home inMay 2004. She had been in state custody and Gentry was allegedly a friend ofthe child's mother. Investigators apprehended Gentry as he was going into aconvenience store.

Authorities said he was using an alias of Alex SebastianHendrix and speaking with a British accent. The 16-year-old girl, who isn'tbeing identified because of her age, was found nearby in a recreational vehiclethe two had reportedly been living in.

She told authorities she was two monthspregnant. Gentry was reportedly indicted by a Sevier County grand jury forhaving sex with four girls between the ages of 13 and 15 between May 2003 andMay 2004. Those charges included three counts of statutory rape and one countof rape of a child.