By John Balch
News-Leader staff
On Monday, April 21, Ninth West Judicial Circuit Judge Tom Cooper sentenced two Pike County men, including a former preacher, to a total of 220 of years in prison after they plead guilty to felony charges involving child sexual abuse material.
James Vincent Henry, 43, who’s last address was in Delight but court records list his home in Gravette, plead guilty to 11 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Judge Cooper sentenced Henry to 10 years on each count for a total of 110 years in the Arkansas Department of Corrections (ADC). The sentences will run consecutively.
Henry, who served as preacher at Crossroads Assembly of God Church in Delight prior to his arrest, was originally charged with 100 counts and was arrested Oct. 15, 2024. He has remained in county custody since then on $50,000 bond.
Henry was officially charged with 20 counts on Nov. 15, 2024, but on Monday the court opted not to pursue nine of those charges as part of Henry’s plea deal.
According to an affidavit prepared by Special Agent Christopher Harper with the Arkansas State Police, an investigation involving Henry began in August 2024 when Harper was assigned two “cyber tip” reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The reports involved the uploading of CSAM (child sexual abuse material) using Kik and Snapchat messaging applications.
The material was uploaded from an account belonging to Henry and his official church email address was used.
The state police investigator was able to determine that the one IP addresses involved in the CSAM was assigned to Henry at his Cherry Street home in Delight and that another address was assigned to Crossroads Assembly of God Church.
A residential search warrant was executed at the Henry home on Sept. 25 and numerous electronic devices were seized. Henry was then escorted to the church where more electronic devices were seized.
An extraction of one of Henry’s phone showed his phone number was allegedly associated with the CSAM and several photos were recovered. Another phone, owned by Henry’s wife, Brittney, was also extracted and showed she made numerous calls and sent numerous messages to and from the phone number at the center of the investigation. Henry’s phone number was labeled “vacation phone” in his wife’s phone contacts.
Brittney Henry has not been arrested or charged in connection with this case.
According to the Delight church’s website at the time of Henry’s arrest, Henry is original from Dumas and he has served as youth pastor at Assembly of God churches in Lacey, McGehee and Mountain Pine, as well as Newsong Church in Centerton, where he served on the “media team.”
The website also states the Henrys served as foster parents for New Beginnings Children’s Home in Centerton and they were foster parents to 76 children in four years before they moved to the “transitional living program for young ladies 18-25” for two years.
Also on Monday, Judge Cooper sentenced Roy M. Oleyte, 47, of Glenwood, under the same conditions as the Henry case and he plead guilty to 11 of 20 counts of distributing, possessing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Oleyte was sentenced to 110 consecutive years in the ADC.
Oleyte was arrested and booked at the Pike County jail on Oct. 29, 2024 and he has been in county custody with $100,000 since his arrest.
He was officially charged on Nov. 15, 2024.
Oleyte was using BitTorrent to download child pornography.
A search warrant was executed at the defendant’s Lakeshore Street apartment on Oct. 29 and his phone was seized. A forensic search found child sexual abuse material and a further evaluation of the phone resulted in the number of criminal counts to increase to 20.
