Despite being denied on two legal fronts to have his sentence time reduced before it was handed down, a Peck man was sentenced Wednesday afternoon to a maximum of 15 years in prison for distributing child sexually abusive material.
Sanilac County Circuit Court Judge Timothy Wrathell noted to Anthony Caulkins, age 30, at his sentencing on Wednesday, September 17, that, based on Caulkins’ lack of past offenses and the testimony provided by 18 submitted letters of support for Caulkins, the judge was shocked that Caulkins was even facing prison time. However, Wrathell also acknowledged that “this particular case is terrible.”
During his address to the defendant, Judge Wrathell recounted certain details of the case, saying that it was concerning how Caulkins’ behavior had progressed over several years, encompassing multiple photos and videos distributed and exchanged, even allegedly between Caulkins and underage victims. Wrathell mentioned that he wondered how much the defendant’s supporters actually knew about the case and its details, and mused if the support would still be there if the supporters knew the whole story.
The judge also noted that, by committing his crime, Caulkins had helped facilitate child exploitation. “This isn’t ‘I did something stupid;’ this is truly something that victimizes children,” Wrathell declared. He went on to say that he had been inclined to give a harsher sentence, but took into account the letters of support, as submitted by former teachers, relatives, friends and coworkers of Caulkins.
With that in mind, Judge Wrathell sentenced Caulkins to a prison term of 38 months (3 years, two months) to 15 years, with a credit of one day served. When Caulkins is released, he is required by this conviction to register with the state’s Public Sex Offender Registry. He has also been ordered to pay court and state costs.
Caulkins’ defense team had attempted to mitigate the sentence by submitting two documents on Tuesday, September 16: a sentencing memorandum, a document which provides further explanation by the defense as to why the defendant should receive a lesser sentence and an objection to the sentencing’s offense variable scoring, the process used to calculate the appropriate sentence for the crime and its perpetrator. However, due to the untimeliness of their submission, Caulkins’ defense instead was sanctioned and given a $100 fine.
Following his sentence, Caulkins was remanded back into the custody of the Sanilac County Sheriff’s Office.
