SKOWHEGAN — A Bingham man with a prior record of sexual offenses has been convicted again, this time for inappropriately touching two young girls and exposing himself to them during their family camping trip to Moscow.

A jury found Christopher C. Cates, 49, guilty of two counts of unlawful sexual contact, one a Class B and one a Class C; one Class C count of visual sexual aggression against a child; one Class D count of unlawful sexual touching; and one Class E count of indecent conduct.

Christopher C. Cates Somerset County Sheriff’s Office photo

The verdict came Thursday after two days of testimony in Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan. The jury heard closing arguments Thursday morning, began deliberations around noon and took just more than an hour to return the verdict.

Cates is also charged with one Class B count of tampering with a victim, one Class C count of tampering with a witness or informant and three Class D counts of attempted violation of condition of release.

He waived a jury trial for those allegations, so District Court Judge Andrew Benson will determine Cates’ guilt. Attorneys presented evidence related to those charges Thursday morning before the jury arrived.

A date for the conclusion of that portion of the trial was not immediately set Thursday. A date for Cates’ sentencing hearing also remained pending, Benson said.

Before the trial began Tuesday, Cates rejected the last plea agreement from prosecutors, which would have effectively resulted in 20 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release or probation.

Cates will continue to be held without bail while awaiting sentencing, as he has been while awaiting trial.

In his closing argument in the jury trial Thursday, prosecutor Timothy Snyder, first assistant district attorney for the Somerset County district attorney’s office, echoed his opening statement in which he called the case one of “betrayal.”

“What the defendant did is exploit the situation,” Snyder told the jury. “He found two young girls in a vulnerable position and took advantage of that situation. He took advantage of questionable decision making. He took advantage of the family’s misplaced trust. And, worst of all, he took advantage of two young girls.”

Cates, a Tier III lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry, reserved for the most severe crimes, was first arrested in connection with the case in September 2023 as the result of a Somerset County Sheriff’s Office investigation. The offenses in the five counts of which Cates was found guilty occurred in Moscow in July 2023.

Five days after his initial arrest, having posted $25,000 cash bail, Cates was arrested again for violating bail conditions that he have no contact with the two victims or their families. The five counts that did not go before a jury stem from this second arrest.

He was indicted on all 10 counts by a grand jury in February 2024 and pleaded not guilty.

The prosecution relied on testimony from and recorded videos of forensic interviews with the two victims, a 9-year-old and 13-year-old who are sisters.

Cates touched one of the girls inappropriately during an ATV ride, and, in separate interactions, forced both to touch him and exposed himself to them, Snyder said. The family was camping in Moscow with family friends, though they did not know Cates was invited.

The two victims are identified in court records only by their initials, though their names were used during the trial. The Morning Sentinel does not identify alleged victims of sexual offenses without their consent.

Snyder further said in his closing argument that there was corroborating evidence “all over this case” and Cates “admitted, essentially” to what he did.

Snyder also asked the jury to consider a portion of Cates’ criminal history, as well as his initial reaction to being confronted by the girls’ family members and family friends. According to witness testimony, Cates pretended to faint, fled the scene, disposed of his cellphone and hid in his garage.

Defense attorney Stephen Smith, who represented Cates along with Kayla Alves, attacked nearly every part of the prosecution’s case in his closing argument.

“This isn’t a popularity contest,” Smith began. “You don’t have to like Mr. Cates. This is a court of law.”

Smith attributed some of the alleged unlawful sexual contact to unavoidable, incidental contact while riding a vehicle such as an ATV with another person.

He called the two victims “extremely immature and unreliable young women,” also saying they are “probably a little delayed, for lack of a better way to put it” and “pretty easily suggestible.”

The older girl failed to identify Cates in the courtroom while on the witness stand. During his closing argument, Smith demonstrated to the jury how she passed within feet of the defense table twice on her way in and out of the courtroom and stood up on the witness stand to get a better view.

The defense’s case also took aim at two other witnesses, the girls’ mother and a family friend, Christopher White, who were among the others on the camping trip.

“There’s all sorts of bad judgment going on here,” Smith said.

White, also a convicted sexual offender, is friends with Cates. He assisted the investigation by recording phone conversations with Cates, which he shared with Detective Jeremy Leal of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, the primary investigator.

White and the girls’ mother had met at a concert about six months prior, and later attended an adult sex toy party with him, according to testimony. White was the one who organized the logistics of the camping trip, and the girls referred to him as “Uncle Chris.”

“Sounds kind of sketchy,” Smith said of White’s relationship with the family. “Sounds like poor judgment.”

White may have been the perpetrator and Cates was an innocent bystander, Smith said, highlighting that the two have the same first name.

Smith said testimony showed DNA evidence collected from one of the girl’s underwear matched her father’s DNA and another unknown profile. White’s DNA was never collected to see if it matched.

Snyder, the prosecutor, called the DNA a “neutral piece of evidence,” saying there was not enough information in the unknown profile to say who it belonged to.

As for the mother’s judgment, Snyder said: “Were her decisions questionable? Yes. Were they dangerous? Yes, it was proven that they were. But the bottom line is that (she) is not on trial here.”

And Snyder had also characterized White in a different way, calling him the “perfect person” to work with investigators because of his own criminal record and friendship with Cates.

Separately, White’s recordings are the bulk of the evidence presented in the nonjury section of the trial, related to Cates’ alleged attempts to tamper with the investigation.

Cates has a list of convictions for sexual offenses dating back to 1996, according to a Maine State Bureau of Identification database search . He is on the sex offender registry for previous convictions of unlawful sexual contact and prohibited contact with a person under 14 years of age, online records show.

A jury found Cates guilty of unlawful sexual contact involving a 60-year-old woman in 2017, the Morning Sentinel reported.