Sacramento man convicted of sexually abusing infant he was babysitting, prosecutors say
A Sacramento man already convicted in federal court for producing child pornography faces additional prison time after his conviction this week for sexually abusing an infant girl he was babysitting, prosecutors said.
Javontae D. Rucker, 29, on Wednesday pleaded no contest to committing a sex act on a child younger than 10 years old, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office announced in a news release.
Rucker on Friday afternoon remained in custody at the Sacramento County Main Jail. Prosecutors said Rucker will return to court July 16 for sentencing; he faces a maximum sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
His state prison sentence will be served concurrently with a 27-year federal prison sentence for the child pornography conviction, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
County prosecutors said Rucker in February 2017 took digital images of himself sexually abusing the infant girl, who was several months old at the time. They said he uploaded the explicit images to his Google account, and officials from Google then notified the Sacramento Valley High Tech Task Force.
The task force investigators discovered additional images of child pornography in various online accounts he controlled, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
At the time of Rucker’s March 2018 arrest, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office said detectives discovered accounts associated with Rucker that contained more than 1,000 digital files of child pornography.
Initially, Rucker faced in Sacramento Superior Court a count each of possessing matter depicting sexual conduct of a person younger than 18 and lewd acts with a child younger than 14. Those charges charges were dropped.
The larger case was a parallel prosecution between the District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento.
On July 25, 2019, Rucker pleaded guilty in federal court to producing child pornography and was sentenced to 27 years on June 3, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Given the severity of this defendant’s conduct and the need to deter him and protect the public from further crimes by him — especially young, vulnerable children like the infant victim — today’s sentence is necessary and appropriate,” acting U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert said.
