A North Little Rock man, convicted in 2015 for possession of child pornography, was ordered back to federal prison Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Kristine Baker after he was charged a second time with failure to comply with the terms of his supervised release.
Curtis Lee Gaines, 35, served just under five years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to a single count of possession of child pornography in exchange for prosecutors dropping child-sex trafficking and conspiracy charges. He was released Feb. 29, 2020.
Gaines and a co-defendant, Andre Kimble, were arrested Aug. 28, 2013, after a prostitution sting operation in North Little Rock. Kimble pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking of children and was sentenced to 7½ years in federal prison on Dec. 3, 2014.
Baker sentenced Gaines to eight months in prison and five years supervised release for numerous violations of his release terms between Sept. 22, 2020 and Dec. 3. Gaines appeared in court by a videoconference link from the Pulaski County jail, where he has been held since his arrest Dec. 7.
On Oct. 23, according to court records, Gaines was arrested by the Arkansas Highway Police in Pulaski County for speeding 105 mph in a 65 mph zone, improper lane change, reckless driving and fleeing.
Other offenses during that time period included failure to report and abide by his location monitoring schedule, failure to report a contact with law enforcement, failure to accurately report the date and reason for termination of his employment, failure to submit a urine specimen when required, submission of two urine specimens that tested positive for methamphetamine, and committing another federal, state, or local crime while on supervised release.
Tuesday was the second time in less than a year that Gaines appeared in Baker's court charged with failure to comply with his release terms.
On June 5 Baker revoked Gaines' supervised release for the first time and sentenced him to time served and another five years supervised release after he admitted to several violations between March 3 and March 9. A petition to revoke his release was filed March 16 and Gaines was arrested and jailed on April 7.
Those violations included possession of an unauthorized cellphone and accessing the internet without authorization; signing up for social media accounts without authorization; possession of pornography; engaging in sexual chat activities; and creating a video that depicted Gaines dancing with a girl
Gaines' attorney, Robert Sloan Jr., argued for leniency for his client, telling Baker that Gaines had been employed since his release from jail in June, and that Gaines had been under undue stress after a house fire that left Gaines and his wife dependent upon family members for shelter.
"Obviously, he could have done better but he was going through a pretty tumultuous time," Sloan said. "His wife and his mother were not getting along although they had to lean on his mother during this time period. He started using methamphetamine, which is why he tested positive in early December."
Sloan requested that Baker sentence Gaines to home detention until he would be able to get into an in-patient drug treatment facility for his meth addiction.
Gaines acknowledged an addiction to drugs and told Baker he could not get off of them without help.
"I'm not blaming my drug use on what I was going through at the time but I do want to admit that I am addicted to drugs," Gaines told Baker. "I do need help. I can't do it by myself."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Bryant argued for jail time, pointing out that Gaines had already violated his release terms once and that his behavior constituted a danger.
"The court knows from the record that Mr. Gaines has been revoked once," Bryant said. "He was pulled over ... for going 105 miles per hour in the city, putting multiple people in danger."
Bryant also pointed out that five of the seven monitoring violations Gaines was charged with occurred before his house burned down and she said on numerous occasions, he had lied to probation officers regarding his employment.
Baker noted that Gaines had appeared to maintain some stability from the time he was released from jail in June until late October, but from that point until he was arrested Dec. 7, things seemed to spiral out of control.
"Oct. 23, 2020, is when things really seemed to go south, for lack of any better explanation," Baker said. "In my record, from that point on, in November we have some other law enforcement contacts, we have the window tinting, we have driving around at night with your plate being run when you're not supposed to be out."
Baker said the record showed that Gaines lost his job in November and in December he tested positive twice for methamphetamine use.
In addition to eight months in prison and five years supervised release, Baker ordered Gaines to seek sex-offender and substance-abuse treatment; to register as a sex offender; to avoid direct contact with children under 18; to obtain permission before accessing the internet; and submit to monitoring software to be installed on his computer.