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SKOWHEGAN — A Bingham man was sentenced Thursday to serve 24 years in prison for sexually assaulting an 8-year-old close family member on several occasions.
Justin Harris, 20, had pleaded guilty August 2024 to three Class A counts of gross sexual assault, according to court records. He pleaded guilty as part of a deal in which prosecutors dismissed two more counts of the same offense and agreed to cap their requested sentence at 25 years in prison.
But due to various delays, including waiting for experts’ reports to be completed, it was not until Thursday that Superior Court Chief Justice Robert E. Mullen sentenced Harris in a case that seemed to challenge him to balance the egregious nature of the crimes alongside a slew of mitigating factors in Harris’ favor.
“This case, for me, kind of goes backwards and forwards; point, counterpoint. I’ve got a defendant who has, frankly, done an almost unspeakable thing,” Mullen said during the afternoon hearing at the Somerset County Superior Court. “… It’s tough to get past that.”
Mullen ultimately settled on a prison sentence of 24 years to be followed by 15 years of supervised release after weighing arguments from prosecutors and Harris’ court-appointed attorney, Jennifer Cohen.
Conditions of the supervised release prohibit Harris from possessing alcohol, drugs and sexually oriented material and having contact with children under the age of 18 and with the victim. He also must complete a sexual offender program and comply with the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act as a lifetime registrant.
If Harris violates the terms of supervised release, he could be required to serve that time in prison.
Class A crimes, the highest level of offenses in Maine aside from murder, are generally punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Maine law says that, in the three-step process that judges use to determine sentences, the starting point must be 20 years for a sentence for gross sexual assault with a victim younger than 12 years old. The law also requires a judge to impose a period of supervised release, of any number of years up to life, to follow the prison sentence in such cases.
Harris was arrested in March 2024 following an investigation led by Detective Jeremy Leal of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office. A Somerset County grand jury indicted him on five counts of gross sexual assault the following month, and Harris initially pleaded not guilty. Harris has been held in jail since his arrest, records show.
Timothy Snyder, first assistant district attorney for Somerset County, said in court Thursday that Harris repeatedly sexually assaulted the young, close family member over the course of a year.
The Morning Sentinel does not identify victims of sexual assault without their consent.
Harris would wake her up in the middle of the night, carry her across the house in a blanket and sexually assault her, Snyder said. The assaults happened when other family members were not at the home, and Harris offered the victim gifts to make her comply.
“The victim’s description of the assaults are incredibly sad,” he said. “From her extremely young perspective, she had difficulty finding the words to describe what exactly was happening as it was beyond her understanding.”
Snyder said Harris had a “heinous mentality” regarding the crimes and demonstrated “extreme callousness”
“This was no one-time mistake,” Snyder said. “Instead, after committing a sexual assault, after having time to reflect upon what happened, he decided to do it again, and again, and again, and again.”
Snyder recommended a sentence of 25 years in prison and 25 years of supervised release.
The girl Harris sexually assaulted was not in court Thursday, and Snyder told Mullen nobody was there to speak regarding the impact on her.
Snyder read a statement from Harris’ mother, who was in the courtroom and is also related to the victim. Her statement asked Mullen for leniency, saying her son was known to be caring, respectful and dependable, had been involved in the family’s church community and has shown growth and accountability since his arrest.
“He is not beyond repair,” she wrote in the statement. “He is seeking to make amends, to grow in his faith, and to, one day, become a force for healing and good.”
Cohen, Harris’ attorney, argued for a lighter sentence of 10 years in prison and 15 years supervised release.
Cohen took issue with Snyder’s suggestion that the case’s unusually upsetting nature be a factor in sentencing, saying that all sexual assaults of young children are heinous and sad.
“Unfortunately, your honor, it’s the nature of the beast,” Cohen told Mullen.
Cohen rattled off a long list of mitigating factors for Mullen to consider.
A state forensic psychologist found Harris to have an average risk of reoffending, and his eagerness to participate in treatment would lower that risk further, Cohen said. Harris has demonstrated a willingness to participate in structured programs by completing dozens of classes and getting a high school diploma at the Somerset County Jail in Madison.
Cohen also pointed to Harris’ young age as a factor that would reduce his chance at recidivism. An evaluation found he did not meet the diagnostic criteria for pedophilia — sexual feelings toward children.
Harris also took responsibility early in the legal process, Cohen said, confessing to police and then choosing to plead guilty to most of the allegations.
At length, Cohen also described Harris’ circumstances at home and challenges with mental health and substance use disorder.
Harris comes from a large family with seven siblings and a single mother, Cohen said. Harris had no relationship with his biological father and had some abusive stepfathers. His mother, at times, struggled to support the family financially, and Harris experienced hunger and had to go to school in dirty clothes. He suffered from low self-esteem, had few friendships because of moves between the South and Maine, and experienced verbal and physical abuse from his siblings, Cohen said.
At the time of the sexual assaults, Harris was consuming seven or eight vodka drinks and smoking three to four bowls of marijuana each night, Cohen said. He also reported watching pornography, which an older brother exposed him to when he was 8 years old, four times a day, she said.
An evaluation found Harris has ADHD, lacks maturity and has issues with executive functioning and impulse controls, among other cognitive issues, Cohen said. She offered those as mitigating factors, not to assert that Harris had limited mental capacity, but to explain his decision-making abilities.
A woman who identified herself as Harris’ stepmother and lived with the family for about two years, including when the sexual assaults occurred, said she tried to improve the environment at Harris’ home but it was difficult to keep up with the many siblings.
“I believe that he made horrible choices in a very tough, challenging environment where he didn’t know how else to deal with everything that he was going through and didn’t think that he had a voice,” she said, appearing in court via videoconference.
Harris, shackled and wearing blue jail clothing, declined to speak.
Mullen said weighing the aggravating and mitigating factors made the case “more gray than black and white,” adding that there were more mitigating factors than in most cases of high-level offenses he has seen.
He acknowledged the sentence imposed may not be perfect, and at one point floated throwing out the plea deal altogether. And Mullen said he believed Harris truly showed remorse.
“Notwithstanding how serious the offense you committed (was), I do think you can change,” Mullen told Harris from the bench. “I think you’ve already started to change. But we’ll see.”
HOW TO GET HELP
IF YOU or someone you know has experienced sexual violence, you can call 1-800-871-7741 for free and confidential help 24 hours a day.
TO LEARN more about sexual violence prevention and response in Maine, visit the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault website.
IF YOU or someone you know is struggling with a mental health crisis, you can also call the Maine Crisis Line 24 hours a day at 1-888-568-1112.
FOR MORE information about mental health services in Maine, visit the website for the state’s chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.
