N.Y. State Man Facing 300 Year Prison Sentence for Child Sex Abuse

Rochester man faces over 300 years in prison

for child sex abuse

Will Cleveland

A Rochester man faces over 300 years in prison after being convicted of sexually abusing six children.

Keith Wilcox, 60, was convicted of 34 different counts involving children, between the ages of 11 and 16, at his Tacoma Street home over a five-year period. The trial took a week and a half and it took a jury in state Supreme Court about two hours to convict Wilcox.

Wilcox abused six children in his care after convincing the parents, mostly mothers, of these children that he would house and care for them like a father would.

Mothers, Mothers, Mothers - please do not leave your children with any man you are not married to or are the daughter of.

He was convicted of two counts of predatory sexual assault against a child, both Class A felonies. Those are the most serious charges he was facing, Monroe County Senior Assistant District Attorney Kyle Rossi said. Assistant District Attorney Leslie Schildt prosecuted the case with Rossi.

Rossi said, "He could face 324 years to life." Wilcox is scheduled to be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 16 by state Supreme Court Justice Francis A. Affronti.

Eight victims, seven boys and one girl, testified against Wilcox, Rossi said.

Happened over decades

"The investigation uncovered more victims, but they were not able to be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had passed," Rossi said. "I've never seen anything like this, how someone could reach out and hurt so many kids. We're aware of it happening over decades."

Thank you NY State Senate & House. Your cowardliness about changing the Statute of Limitations will for make sure victims like these will never get justice. 

Rossi said Wilcox wasn't caught until now "because of the dynamics of child sex abuse, which always include secrecy and almost always include a delay in disclosure from the kids."

Would you kindly inform New York lawmakers about that 'delay in disclosure'; they don't seem to get it.

Wilcox's co-defendant Andre Lomax, 51, was already convicted of second-degree criminal sex act. He was sentenced to seven years in state prison.

Rossi said the courage of the victims awed him.

"I can't even do these kids justice for how brave they were," he said. "I have so much respect and I am so proud of these kids. This is probably the hardest thing they will ever do in their lives, and they can't even understand how at their young ages, how their coming forward has enabled a jury to put this monster away and save other innumerable victims."

We're all proud of you kids. God bless you.