Christopher Lumpkins
A self-confessed child molester who victimized a young girl for several years was given the maximum possible sentence Wednesday in Bartholomew Superior Court 1.
Christopher Dennis Lumpkins, 56, whose address was initially reported as 3207 Sycamore Drive, Columbus, was ordered by Judge James Worton to serve 12 years in prison.
While given credit for the two years he’s already been in jail, Lumpkins will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, Worton said.
Court documents indicate the victim was only 5 when she was first molested, and the abuse stopped two years ago when the girl was 10.
The dozen years Worton ordered for the defendant will run consecutively with any sentence that may emerge from another case filed in Brownstown. Lumpkins is facing another child molesting case in Jackson Circuit Court that could add 20 to 50 more years to Worton’s sentence.
Online records state the Level A felony in Jackson County took place in 2013 – one year before Indiana began using levels, rather than letters, to classify felony charges. While the charge was filed on Nov. 7, 2022, Jackson Circuit Judge Richard W. Poynter agreed to wait until the Bartholomew County case was complete before resuming court hearings against the defendant.
Lumpkins was also a suspect in a sexual abuse case in Boyd County, Kentucky. But in court Wednesday, public defender Greg Long stated no action was taken in that case after it was taken to a grand jury.
While testifying on the stand, Columbus Police investigator Jackson Shepherd said Lumpkins has warned him after making his 2022 confession that “there are going to be (a lot) of people coming forward and accusing me of doing something.” Shepherd testified that when he attempted to persuade Lumpkins to elaborate, the defendant only replied he wouldn’t fight any new accusations, and that he didn’t care anymore.
During his sentencing, Worton said since Lumpkins agreed to a plea bargain, it meant the victim, now 12, would not have to testify. Shepherd was the only person to testify during the hearing.
But the judge stressed the defendant would have received many more years in prison if he didn’t agree to the plea arrangement. Had Lumpkins been found guilty of all original charges, Worton could have sentenced him to 64 years with the Indiana Department of Correction, as well as ordered him to pay fines of up to $30,000.
Prior to the sentencing, Lumpkins asked to make a statement to the court. Speaking with emotion in his voice, the defendant repeated a claim made earlier to investigators that he had been molested as a child, which he claims led him to commit his own crimes.
As he attempted to continue addressing the judge, Lumpkins was only able to get out “I just …” before looking down and silently shook his head for several seconds.
A probable cause affidavit states the molestations in Columbus ended in October 2021. Seven months later, the victim saw Lumpkins as she was returning home from a park and insisted he tell her mother of the sexual assaults, according to the affidavit.
Lumpkins did as the girl insisted and the mother called police, the affidavit states.
When questioned in May 2022, Lumpkins told investigators he did whatever the child was accusing him of committing, court documents state.
But investigators also wrote the defendant claimed he could not provide details because a stroke had wiped away much of his memory.
