by Tom Chillemi –
On Nov. 17, Middlesex County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Shaw sentenced Jimmy Elias Bristow, of Wake, to 40 years in prison and a $30,000 fine after Bristow was found guilty of 20 sex crimes involving minors that occurred over 30 years.
On June 29, a jury of six men and six women found Bristow guilty following a two-day trial. The jury recommended Bristow be sentenced to 40 years and a fine of $30,000. Bristow, 76, would be 116 years old when he completes his sentence, likely meaning he will remain behind bars the rest of his life.
Last week, Judge Jeffrey Shaw followed the jury’s recommendation in sentencing Bristow.
For the 10 counts of aggravated sexual battery Bristow was sentenced to three years on each count, which is a total of 30 years. Also, on three of these counts he was sentenced to a $10,000 fine on each of the three counts involving a minor between ages 13 and 17.
Judge Jeffrey Shaw imposed a sentence of three years on each of the remaining seven counts of aggravated sexual battery involving two other minors who were younger than 13 years of age. The aggravated sexual battery statute at the time of these seven offenses did not allow for a fine, explained Mathews County Commonwealth’s Attorney Tom Bowen III. Bowen was appointed as the special prosecutor for Bristow’s case in 2019 when Middlesex Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael Hurd recused himself from prosecuting Bristow.
Bristow also was sentenced to one year in prison on each of the 10 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child.
All of the prison sentences are to be served “consecutively,” which equals a total sentence of 40 years, and a $30,000 fine.
Bowen explained that under Virginia’s Conditional Release of Geriatric Prisoners statute, Bristow, 76, must serve at least five years in prison before he can petition the Parole Board for conditional release.
Bristow was represented during the sentencing hearing by attorney David B. Hargett of Glen Allen.
Evidence
Bristow’s 20 sexual-related crimes date from 1986 to 2016.
At Bristow’s bond hearing on August 2019 in Middlesex Circuit Court, Virginia State Police Investigator Mallorie Lawton testified her investigation began in December 2018.
Investigator Lawton testified her investigation started after one of the victims told her mother of the abuse; then two other victims came forward.
Victim statements
Bristow sat expressionless as a victim told him of the pain she had endured because of him.
Wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit, his ankles shackled with a short chain, he leaned to one side of the wooden chair at the defendant’s table. Bristow looked at the victim as she told him that for 15 years she endured his “unwanted touching.” It started when she was a child and continued to the first year of her marriage, she said, adding she had been silent about the touching for 35 years. “I’ve lived a lie most of my life to protect” others. “One lie was placed on another lie. I didn’t know how to get out of it.”
Now that she’s come forward and told the truth, she’s lost people that she loved. “I’m no longer scared to tell my stories.”
The woman, who said she was in therapy, told Bristow, “I forgive you for what you’ve done to me.”
Another of the victims told Bristow, “There will always be scars from what you’ve done,” she said, and that his actions had taken from her the ability to trust. “Some of the things you have taken I will not get back,” she said. “I’m ready to close this wound.”
Defendant’s statement
When Judge Shaw asked Bristow if he had anything to say before he was sentenced, Bristow told the court, “I am an innocent man. I did not do these things that these girls accused me of … I forgive them.”
He asked the court for “mercy.”
Sentencing arguments
Earlier in the sentencing hearing during his final arguments, prosecutor Tom Bowen pointed out there had been “no expression of remorse” by Bristow.
Bristow’s defense attorney David Hargett noted that the court had received “character” letters and said some of the words used to describe Bristow included, “respectful, level headed, good hearted, supportive, and trustworthy.”
Hargett said Bristow has health problems that will be affected by incarceration. “Extended incarceration will be the end of Mr. Bristow.”
