By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
A Kannapolis man was convicted Thursday on sex offense charges that stem from a 2006 incident where he inappropriately touched a then-12-year-old boy.
Following nearly three hours of deliberations, a Rowan Superior Court jury convicted Thomas Brant Gee, 37, on one count of indecent liberties with a child and two counts of first-degree sex offense of a child.
The incidents occurred in mid-September 2006 at the home of the victim. The victim was known to Gee, who was an acquaintance of the family.
The Post does not identify victims of sexual assault.
The trial began earlier in the week with testimony from Gee, the victim, the victim’s brother and mother, as well as the officer who took Gee’s statement.
Superior Court Judge John L. Holshouser presided over the case.
Gee admitted to being drunk the night of one of the incidents. He also claimed he does not remember much of what happened.
When asked if the incident happened, Gee testified that it was possible.
“He was consumed by alcohol. He remembers bits and pieces,” Gee’s attorney Rick Locklear said in his closing statement.
Locklear said when Rowan Sheriff’s detectives and a social worker asked the victim what was going on in his life, he said nothing.
At first, the victim was reluctant to say anything. He eventually opened up.
Locklear said there were discrepancies in the brother’s testimony. He also pointed to the lack of physical evidence. No hospital exam was performed.
“What was added to their stories to cause them to believe something happened?” Locklear asked.
The victim and his brother told investigators that Gee performed oral sex on the 12-year-old.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Van Buren also told jurors there was little physical evidence. However, the statements from the victim and his younger brother led investigators to conclude the incidents did occur, Van Buren said.
The victim told investigators that while he sat on Gee’s lap, the defendant touched the boy’s private parts.
The victim’s brother also said he saw Gee under the covers with his brother also performing oral sex.
Van Buren said the victim has special needs and at times his speech was unclear. He also said children do not recall dates like adults. But what was clear was that Gee “molested” the boy.
Van Buren asked Gee to look at the victim and say he was lying. Gee could not.
“We don’t need this to happen to another child,” Van Buren said.
He said the victim and his brother did the right thing when they told their mother.
Gee told the mother he thought something might have happened.
“It was a moment of weakness,” Gee told the mother, testimony showed.
He also told the mother that, when he was a child, a cousin and neighborhood boys performed oral sex on him.
“Is it a coincidence that what was done to him, or are you starting to get into the mind of a child molester ó a dangerous predator?” Van Buren asked jurors.
The victim won’t be OK, Van Buren said.
“Thomas Gee wasn’t OK when it was done to him,” he said.
Van Buren said Gee was making excuses for his behavior.
“It happened to me so I did it to somebody,” he said.
Some jurors cried as their individual verdicts were read. The victim’s mother and other family members were overcome with emotion as well.
Gee sat beside his attorney and wept. He was taken to the Rowan County Detention Center and is expected to be sentenced today.