The Kenton County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office is recommending the maximum sentence of 70 years for 46-year-old Covington resident Jacob Elvis Mayes, who pleaded guilty to various sex crimes against children on Friday.
The current maximum sentence against such crimes allowed by Kentucky law is 70 years.
Mayes pleaded guilty to 15 felony offenses and one misdemeanor offense in court in lieu of going to trial. The offenses range from sodomy and rape to possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, known more commonly as child porn. The offenses occurred at various times between 2010 and 2024.
The victim reported Mayes to the police in June 2024, and the police obtained a warrant for his arrest the following September. Covington Sgt. Austin Ross executed the warrant and collected evidence, including phones, computers and other devices containing the offending material.
“Search of Mayes’s electronics located what investigators estimated to be thousands of photos and videos of Mayes sexually assaulting the victim,” according to a press release from the Commonwealth’s Attorney. “Investigators also determined Mayes secretly recorded videos and images of the child victim’s exposed genitals. The videos date back to as early as when the victim was 8 years old.”
“It’s incomprehensible how such brazen child sexual assault continued for so long without anyone noticing or stepping up to help this child, but fortunately the victim found help after becoming an adult,” said Emily Arnzen, who served as the prosecutor in the case, in the same release. “What this child grew up thinking was ‘normal’ behavior is almost incomprehensible. Fortunately, Mayes dug his own grave with his sick need to record his abhorrent behavior.”
Mayes will be sentenced on Nov. 10.