MURRAY – A 76-year-old Murray man was arraigned in Calloway Circuit Court on Monday, attending via Zoom from the Kentucky State Reformatory in La Grange, Ky., on charges of possession or viewing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor and promoting a sexual performance by a minor.
Gary White, Sr., is already serving 12 years after pleading guilty in a 2021 case to 10 counts of distribution of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, first offense, and two counts of possession or viewing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, both class D felonies.
According to court records, the charges were the result of an undercover online investigation regarding an email account that was traced back to White.
White entered a plea agreement with Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney James Burkeen whereby charges in another 2021 case (21-CR-00152) were dismissed, namely two counts of promoting a sexual performance by a minor under 16 years old, which were related to incidents that occurred in February 2010, according to court records.
Prior to his sentencing in July 2022, White’s attorney Chris Hendricks filed an objection to a victim impact statement submitted by the Commonwealth. He argued that the crimes to which White pleaded guilty did not involve any victims who were identified by name. The impact statement submitted was written by the alleged victim in 21-CR-00152, and the charges related thereto were dismissed pursuant to the agreement.
Hendricks further moved the court to consider probating the sentence, citing, among other things, White’s comprehensive sex offender presentence evaluation which categorized his as being “not high risk of being detected again for a sex crime. The nature and duration of his sexual offense is not indicative of a sexual fixation on children.”
The pleading also noted that White “has already been punished harshly as a result of his actions. He no longer enjoys any relationship with two (2) of his children nor with his mother. He has been ostracized from his church where he was once very active. It is reasonable to believe that the stress and anxiety of being charged with these offenses (especially the nature of the offenses), their pendency in this Court, and the possibility of incarceration that looms over Gary contributed in some ways to the decline in his health and mobility in recent months.”
In lieu of incarceration, White proposed five conditions to assure the court that “while he is in the community, he is leading a law abiding and productive life and not in need of correctional treatment,” including completing a community-based sex offender treatment program, having no contact or communication with anyone under 18 years old, not accessing the internet or possessing any devices capable of accessing the internet.
White was sentenced to 12 years’ incarceration, pursuant to the plea agreement, which consisted of five years for counts 1-5 (distribution), five years for counts 6-10 (distribution) and two years for counts 11 and 12 (possession). Calloway Circuit Judge Andrea Moore probated the sentence for five years but imposed an alternative sentence of 365 days in the Calloway County Jail.
The following September, Hendricks filed a motion to amend the alternative sentence to home incarceration, arguing that White’s advanced age – 74 at the time – and poor health were already straining the jail’s resources. The motion was granted.
His first probation violations were reported in October 2023. According to the supervision violation report, White received a written warning from his probation officer, Kevin Patterson, on Oct. 11 about possessing pornographic images on his phone. Per weekly reports the officer received from Pay Computer Monitoring Service (PCMS) that White viewed images showing female nudity on Oct. 25 and again on Nov. 19. He was arrested on Nov. 23, 2023.
In December 2023, White was sanctioned to spend 30 days in the Calloway County Jail in lieu of revoking his probation.
In January, Patterson received notification that White was discharged from his sex offender treatment program for being noncompliant with conditions of the program. A revocation hearing was scheduled but had to be continued due to White being in the hospital.
In April, Patterson was notified that White “once again” viewed erotica on four occasions. Another revocation hearing was scheduled. When White did not appear in court for the hearing, he was arrested. A surety bond was set at $10,000, which was posted eight days later.
Patterson received notice from PCMS on June 10 that White had “once again” viewed material of a pornographic nature on two occasions.
“This officer respectfully requests the aforementioned violations included as additional grounds for revocation due to this being the offender’s 8th instance of possession of material that violates his conditions of supervision and offender having been discharged from (sex offender treatment program),” he wrote in his report.
At the June 17 probation revocation hearing, Moore reinstated White’s 12-year sentence, and he was remanded to the Kentucky Department of Corrections.
The grand jury indicted White on the new charges on Nov. 15. – two counts of possession or viewing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor under 12 years old, three counts of possession or viewing matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor under 18 years old and five counts of promoting a sexual performance by a minor under 16 years old, class C, D and B felonies, respectively.
The five counts related to possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) date back to White’s initial arrest in June 2021, according to the indictment. The five counts of promoting a sexual performance concern two victims. The indictment cites incidents that occurred in January 2005 and July 2009. Notably, one of the victims is identified by the same initials as the victim identified in 21-CR-11052.
On Monday, White was appointed a public defender and entered a plea of not guilty. His next court appearance is Monday, Jan. 21, at 8:30 a.m.
Individuals charged with crimes are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
