Jury finds Michigan man guilty of sexually exploiting Lubbock teen
Thomas John Boukamp was convicted Thursday afternoon of sexually exploiting a Lubbock teenager he met online and took to his Michigan home where he repeatedly sexually abused her.
Boukamp, who represented himself at his trial, faces between 15 years to life in prison after jurors found him guilty of a 16-count indictment charging him with felonies of transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct, travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct, enticement and attempted enticement of a minor, receipt of child pornography, cyber stalking and 11 counts of production and attempted production of child pornography.
Deliberations took a little more than an hour before the jury returned to the courtroom with their verdict.
Boukamp, 22, sat quietly as U.S. District Judge Wesley Hendrix read out the jurors decision for each count. He requested a poll of the jurors who all said they found him guilty of all counts.
At the end of the trial, Boukamp informed the court that he will not represent himself in the punishment phase of the trial.
The jury's verdict came after a three-day trial during which prosecutors presented evidence that showed how Boukamp preyed on the girl by exploiting her emotional and mental health issues to send him explicit videos and ultimately run away with him to Michigan in November 2020, where he raped her.
The girl's Nov. 13, 2020 disappearance was initially investigated as a missing person's case. However, the nature of the investigation shifted when police believed she was in danger after discovered messages between her and Boukamp.
Jurors were shown a compilation of online chats from April to November 2020 between Boukamp. The two met online when he was 19 and girl was 13. In November 2020, Boukamp was 20 and the girl just turned 14.
In the exchanges between the two, the girl initially appeared defiant and confrontational with Boukamp, often telling him to leave her alone. However her attitude softened and she sent more complacent messages as she continued communicating with him.
Prosecutor Jeff Haag told jurors in his closing argument that Boukamp's relentless online abuse resulted in the girl's suicide attempt in July 2020. At that point, the girl had given up and submitted to Boukamp's desires, he said.
In the chats, Boukamp berated, humiliated and threatened the girl into sending him sexually explicit images and videos of herself. The evidence showed that Boukamp used those materials as leverage to keep her under his control.
"I can make your life miserable without killing you," Boukamp wrote the girl. "... Don't forget who owns you metaphorically."
The images were not published in court but were provided to jurors for their deliberation.
Boukamp also threatened to kill her and her family.
The girl also testified about the abuse she suffered at Boukamp's hands.
On the second day of the trial, the girl told jurors that she while she like the attention he gave her, his threats terrified her.
She said her depression drove her to agree to the plan to run away with Boukamp and she willingly entered his car parked at her school.
The girl said the trip took two days during which she performed a sexual act on Boukamp. In Michigan, she said the defendant sexually and physically abused her multiple times. She said he told her she was going to be his housewife and sex slave and he planned to impregnate her.
"He would strangle me and hit me," she said.
A forensic scientist told jurors a swab of the girl's genitals contained DNA linked to Boukamp.
The girl recounted to jurors that Boukamp removed her braces with a pair of pliers as she laid on a couch.
She said the two of them would go out of Boukamp's house and walk in public. However, she said she didn't alert anyone that she was there against her will.
"I didn't want Thomas to freak out," she said.
She told jurors that said she didn't think anyone was looking for her, saying Boukamp showed her an online search of her name that did not return any results, which made her feel sad.
She told jurors the only thing she felt for Boukamp at the present was disgust.
Meanwhile, Boukamp spent his cross examination of the girl trying to elicit testimony from the girl, now 15, that she loved him at the time.
"Did you mean it when you said you loved me?," Boukamp asked her.
"Probably, at the time a little bit," she said.
"Do you have any love for me anymore?"
"No."
Boukamp could be seen struggling to compose himself after the exchange and briefly wept in the middle of his cross examination.
He opted not to testify Thursday because he rejected Hendrix's request that Boukamp ask himself questions before answering them.
"I think that would make me look schizophrenic," Boukamp told the court.
Hendrix advised the jury that he believed a question and answer format for Boukamp's testimony would be more efficient and assured them that the defendant was not schizophrenic.
However, Boukamp still refused, calling the judge's request, "unworkable."
During his closing argument, Boukamp told jurors they should find him not guilty because he believed the evidence showed the girl left with him willingly. He also complained that prosecutors and the court barred him from presenting evidence that would give them a complete picture of their relationship, and show that they were in love.
He told juros the evidence showed the girl wanted to run away with him because she was unhappy at home.
He said he met the girl on an online forum that delved into kidnapping and rape fantasies and the online chats prosecutors showed them reflected a role playing aspect of their relationship.
"She wanted me to say these terrible dark and extreme things," he said. "They were meant to look like abuse I was meant to look like a monster in her eyes .. she was extremely into these things she sought them out."
He said though their relationship began over a shared interest in dark fantasies, it "evolved into something wholesome and pure."
He believed the girl was lying about her feelings for him at the time saying her testimony was coerced by prosecutors, who met with her and other witnesses multiple times in preparation for the trial.
"My life has lost a lot of purpose," he said. "And I'm really crushed that she was able to get up and say that."
He argued that the age difference between he and the girl would have been allowable in the past. He also argued that he should not be considered an adult either because he was also teenager at the time.
"I wasn't a man (at the time)," he said. "I can't drink, I can't smoke, but apparently I can rape a child who was a teenage girl. To me, that's absurd."
Haag said nothing in Boukamp's defense addressed the elements of each charge he faced.
"If you look at the law," Haag said. "The overwhelming majority of the defendant's arguments are absolutely irrelevant. A minor cannot consent. Period, full stop. A minor does not have the depth of human experience to make the choice about whether to engage in sexual activity."
Prosecutor Callie Woolam told jurors there was no defense for Boukamp's relationship with the girl. Federal law does not recognize Romeo and Juliet statutes that permits certain sexual relationships between young adults and older teenagers, she said.
"Mr. Boukamp is an adult he has no legal right to have sex with a 13 or 14 year old child," she said. "He cannot have sexual intercourse with a 13-14 year old child."
Haag argued that love was never a factor in Boukamp's relationship with the girl. A note in Boukamp's phone that dated back to 2018 showed his fascination with rape.
Another note showed what appeared to be a brief dossier Boukamp drafted about the girl that listed vulnerabilities he could exploit.
"She was the perfect subject for him to manipulate, to compel and for him to impose his fantasies upon," Haag said.
He asked jurors to imagine saying to the person they loved the things Boukamp wrote the teen.
"The truth is, he beat [the girl] down until she finally submitted and agreed to participate in the dark fantasies that Mr. Boukamp wanted to bring to reality," he said. "And he did bring it to reality when he took her to Michigan and he raped her."
Hendrix will determine Boukamp's punishment at a sentencing hearing that will be set at the completion of a pre-sentencing report.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Jury finds Michigan man guilty of sexually exploiting Lubbock teen
