TEXARKANA -- A former Texarkana teacher who secretly filmed boys using the restroom at the school where he formerly taught was sentenced to four years in prison Monday as part of a plea bargain in Miller County.
Shane Samuel Jones, 31, pleaded guilty to voyeurism and video voyeurism before circuit Judge Brent Haltom in the Miller County courthouse. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Connie Mitchell said Jones' plea bargain includes four years of prison followed by two years of suspended imposition of sentence on each count. Jones also must register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.
If Jones commits a new offense in the two years after the four-year prison term, he could be ordered to serve more time behind bars. Jones will serve both sentences at the same time.
Both of the offenses to which Jones pleaded guilty are punishable by one to six years in prison. Jones must pay court costs and fees, a fee to have his DNA added to a criminal database and a fee to offset the cost of his sex-offender registration.
Mitchell balked when Jones' lawyer, Danny Cook, asked Haltom if Jones could have jail credit toward his sentence for each day he has been outfitted with a GPS leg monitor that was required as a condition of his bail in Bowie County, Texas.
Mitchell said Jones spent two days in jail before posting bond and is eligible only for two days credit toward his four-year prison term. Jones was taken into custody at the end of Monday's hearing.
Jones confessed to filming students while working as a teacher at Trinity Christian School in the Arkansas section of Texarkana while being questioned about an incident Nov. 26 in a men's bathroom at J.C. Penney in Central Mall in Texarkana, Texas. An 11-year-old boy told his parents that while he was in a stall someone slipped a cellphone under the divider and took his picture.
The boy's father sent his son to notify store employees while the father made sure Jones would not leave the store without speaking to police. Jones was arrested several days later after he admitted to filming students and to filming the boy at J.C. Penney and deleting the video, according to court documents.
"He stated that he began videoing male students at his place of employment, Trinity Christian School, while they were using the toilets in the bathroom stalls approximately two years ago," an affidavit said.
Jones admitted to having approximately 10 videos on an old cellphone. He also admitted to filming two male bathroom users at J.C. Penney on two occasions and five male bathroom users at Trinity Christian School on five occasions using the iPhone that was seized from him at the time of his arrest, according to court records.
Jones was fired from his job as a teacher at Trinity Christian because of the allegations. Jones began teaching at the school in 2015 after several years of employment as a teacher at College Hill Middle School.
A charge of invasive visual recording remains pending against Jones in Bowie County, Texas. At a hearing in February, 202nd District Judge John Tidwell refused to accept a plea bargain that included a term of probation.
The charge Jones faces in Bowie County is punishable by six months to two years in a Texas state lockup. He is scheduled to appear before Tidwell in mid-August.
State Desk on 07/25/2018