Woman gets 28 years for sexually assaulting 3-year-old son

SAN ANTONIO — A mother and former Army sergeant who pleaded guilty to a charge that she recorded herself having sex with her 3-year-old son was sentenced in federal court Friday to 28 years in prison.

Kimberly Epperson, 25, accepted a plea deal that set the range of punishment between 15 and 30 years in prison for one count of production of child pornography related to the videos and pictures she sent to former boyfriend Wade Allen Perkins, 26, also an Army sergeant whom she met while they were stationed at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery told Epperson moments before her sentencing Friday that her assaults on her son had effectively “sentenced him to life,” adding he would have 70 years or more to remember and relive the abuses.

“Instead of doing what you should have done (as a mother), you provide this sacrificial lamb of your son,” he said. “Because of your own needs, you were willing to make a sacrifice of your son.”

In October, Biery sentenced Perkins to 30 years in prison for his role in the assaults — the maximum allowable under the agreement — but made it known he didn't feel the sentence was lengthy enough.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson told the court Friday that the pair “used this little boy multiple times” over an eight-week period and asked the judge for the maximum sentence for Epperson.

Defense attorney Joseph Esparza, arguing that his client had been manipulated by Perkins and was coerced into allowing the assaults to take place, asked for leniency and a 15-year sentence.

FBI Special Agent Jeff Allovio testified about the investigation that began in August 2012 after Epperson, pregnant with Perkins' daughter, went to an adoption agency to give up the child, citing her fear that he'd abuse her daughter as he had her son.

The agency told authorities of the claim and an investigation began.

The foster parents of the child victim kept a journal of the outcries he made, Allovio testified, including that the “sweaty bad man” had “hurt his tushie.”

Allovio said he went over the journal line-by-line in an interview with Epperson where she described in detail the assaults.

Allovio told the court that Epperson intentionally destroyed the SIM card in her cellphone and Perkins destroyed all videos and photos he received, but agents did recover “emails and text messages where instructions were provided” about what kind of sex acts Perkins wanted Epperson to perform on her son.

During Friday's testimony, Esparza asked Allovio whether he thought Epperson got pleasure from the assaults on her son.

“Certainly not the same way Wade Perkins did,” he said. “He was the driving force behind this.”

Thompson agreed that Perkins, not Epperson, was the initiator.

“This isn't who she is, it wasn't her idea,” she said. “He found her, and he used her, and he easily manipulated her to get to her son ... but she holds the keys to this little boy's safety, and she failed him, and for that she should be punished.”