A Biloxi man tried to blame the then 7-year-old girl for the sex crimes he committed against her during his plea hearing Friday before he finally fessed up to his crimes.
Judge Lisa Dodson told Jordan Earl Holmes he needed to decide whether he wanted to spend his time trying to blame a little girl who was 8 years old by the time the sexual assault ended and not admit his wrongdoing. The judge warned she would not accept his guilty plea unless he confessed to what he had done.
At first, Holmes erroneously tried to suggest that the girl pushed him to do what he did to her, which included various sexual assaults and molestation beginning in August 2020 until November 2021.
Holmes eventually confessed to what he had done to the little girl. Attorney Angela Broun represented Holmes and explained to the judge that he sometimes had difficulty explaining what he meant.
He pleaded guilty to one count of touching a child for lustful purposes or molestation and one count of sexual battery for sexually penetrating the child on various occasions.
Prior to imposing the sentence, the judge said, “Mr. Holmes, these are very serious cases. They are cases that none of us like for a number of reasons, one of which is that the child was the victim here.
“The child’s innocence is stolen,” she said. “The child trusted you. You breached that trust. Chances are she will never fully trust a man again in her lifetime.”
The judge decided to follow a recommendation of prosecutors for his sentencing and ordered him to serve a 16-year day-for-day sentence for the sex crimes, fining him $2,000 and ordering him to serve five years under post-release supervision. The judge also ordered him to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life once he’s released from prison.
Holmes was set to go to trial Monday in Harrison County Circuit Court in Biloxi but decided to enter guilty pleas at the last minute in a plea agreement with prosecutors.
According to Harrison County Assistant District Attorney Mara Joffe, who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Meaghan Smith, Holmes was 32 at the time he molested and sexually assaulted the child. The crimes against the child didn’t end until after the girl was 8 years old.
Holmes committed the crimes at an apartment complex where he lived with the child’s mother.
In exchange for his guilty plea, the prosecutors dismissed three other sex crime charges against Holmes.
Before handing down the sentence, Holmes turned to the child’s mother to say he was sorry for what he’d done despite trying to place blame on her child for what had happened.
Biloxi police investigated the case. Shortly after the girl reported the allegations against Holmes, he went to a wooded area and slit his throat with a box cutter.
In court Friday, he said his suicide attempt was the result of a compilation of a lot of things.
Source Agencies
