‘We were playing.’ Plea deal rejected for Centerville man accused duct-taping 7-year-old
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A Houston County man accused of using duct tape to bind the hands and mouth of a 7-year-old girl in his care to keep her quiet while he watched TV at a north Macon apartment earlier this year claimed in court Tuesday that he and the child “were playing around.”
Jaimoe Leon Knight, 28, of Centerville, had been set to plead guilty in Bibb County Superior Court to allegations of child cruelty in exchange for a sentence served on probation which required him to have no further contact with the girl.
But as the hearing before Judge Howard Z. Simms played out, after Knight at first balked over taking responsibility for the alleged crime, it was revealed that a past statutory-rape conviction made Knight ineligible for a probated sentence.
The child’s guardians were on board with the plea offer, having told prosecutors they didn’t want the girl to have to testify.
The allegations against Knight stem from an incident that reportedly happened over Memorial Day weekend.
Knight, who was familiar with the girl, was staying with her along with his girlfriend and some acquaintances at an apartment along Bass Road. The girl later told relatives that Knight had duct-taped her and scratched her on the neck after getting mad at her.
Bibb prosecutor Nancy Scott Malcor in court Tuesday said the girl told investigators that Knight had been “very angry ... because he was trying to watch something on television and she was playing with a charm bracelet in his room and it was making too much noise so he grabbed her by the neck.”
Malcor said Knight then put her in a closet, binding her hands and taping her mouth.
The girl freed herself from the binding and informed relatives, Malcor said.
The 7-year-old later said she had been afraid, as the prosecutor put it in quoting the girl’s statement to investigators, “Because that’s not how you’re supposed to treat” a child.
Malcor said one of the girl’s guardians also informed investigators that the girl had said Knight said she “ran her mouth too much.”
Knight, who was said in court Tuesday to have had past convictions for statutory rape and drug possession in Houston County, stood before Judge Simms as the hearing began.
Simms as a matter of routine asked Knight if he was, in fact, guilty.
“I mean,” Knight said, “we were playing around.”
Simms, by then clearly incensed upon hearing the allegations of harming a child, asked Knight to listen carefully.
Then the judge, referring to the tattoo of a pistol that is prominently inked on Knight’s right temple, said to Knight, “I can tell by looking at you that you don’t always exercise good judgment. ... Anybody who would put a tattoo of a gun on their face, that’s pretty evident.”
Knight said he had been high when he got the tattoo and planned to have it surgically removed.
The judge earlier had said that perhaps Knight, if he wasn’t accepting responsibility in the case, needed to go to trial instead of pleading guilty.
“You either did it or you didn’t,” Simms said.
“Yes, sir,” Knight replied, “I’ll take the blame.”
Later, as the plea hearing was nullified and it became clear that prosecutors would have to fashion another plea agreement that will likely result in prison time for Knight, he continued his conversation with the judge.
Knight said he had been high at the time of the incident involving the 7-year-old.
“Obviously,” the judge told him, “you spend a lot of time high. ... You need to get some help, son. ... Doing that to that little girl, I don’t like it.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 5:00 AM.