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It took a jury just less than three hours Monday to assess the maximum sentences for each of the seven child molestation charges against former Texas A&M administrator Brian Lancaster.
A short time later, District Judge Rick Davis opted to stack the five most serious charges -- all for indecency with a child by sexual contact -- boosting his total prison time from 20 years to 100. Two other 10-year sentences, for third-degree felony indecency by exposure and solicitation of a child, will be served concurrently.
Lancaster, 36, will not be eligible for parole until he is 86.
The 36-year-old father of three was arrested last January, after the mother of two girls taking piano lessons with his then-wife made an outcry to authorities.
A seizure of his computers a short time later revealed videos he had made of the molestation, along with the molestation of two other girls. In addition, police reported finding a peeping tom video appearing to depict a teenage neighbor in her bedroom and more than 20,000 downloaded child porn images.
Lancaster pleaded guilty last week to each of the seven charges but asked the jury to assess his sentence. Another 102 charges -- most for third-degree felony possession of child pornography -- were not addressed during the punishment hearing. Prosecutors said outside the courtroom last week that they planned to pursue those charges at another time.
During closing arguments Monday morning, defense attorneys Philip Banks and David Barron asked jurors to temper justice with mercy and said their client -- a respected A&M employee who was serving as acting director of the university's Study Abroad program at the time of his arrest -- had the fortitude to turn his life around once given treatment.
"Brian Lancaster is a sick man," Barron said. "He was brought up in a sick household. He needs help.
"He is not a pile of dung that deserves to be cast aside as the state wants you to believe."
If the jury was to assess the maximum sentence and the judge stack them, the defense warned, it would be the equivalent of giving him a slow death sentence.
Prosecutors Shane Phelps and Danny Smith, however, pushed adamantly for the maximum sentences. Over the course of the trial, Lancaster had "groomed" the jury, they alleged, explaining that the Ph.D. in psychology -- like all good child molesters -- was adept at gaining people's trust.
That's what happened in 1994, they said, when someone in the justice system trusted him enough to reduce an indecency with a child charge to a misdemeanor and put him on probation. The result of that trust, they said, was the molestation of four other girls.
"I think you know who Brian Lancaster is," Phelps said, asking jurors to return a strong, quick and decisive verdict. "He is deceptive, he's manipulative, he's dangerous.
"Let's create as hostile an environment for child molesters as we possibly can."
For more details, see Tuesday's edition of The Eagle.
• Craig Kapitan's e-mail address is craig.kapitan@theeagle.com.
