A federal judge on Feb. 8 sentenced a Homer sport fishing charter captain to 10 years in prison for distributing methamphetamines and oxycodone to teenage girls and for possessing child pornography. Randall Hines, 34, also was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess to 10 years supervised release and to register as a sex offender for 15 years.
Hines also is to fund a $160,000 trust fund that will help victims get drug treatment and counseling.
Hines earlier had pleaded guilty to a series of crimes that took place between 2009 and 2011. Owner of the charter boat Rebel, a 32-foot Bayweld, Hines admitted in a plea agreement that he gave drugs to a teenage girl and had sex with her starting before she turned 16. He also admitted having sex with other girls and gave them meth and oxycodone, including two other girls under 16. In all, he admitted to having sex with and providing drugs to six girls under 18. Hines also admitted to making a sexually explicit video on a cell phone of one girl under 18.
Hines also admitted urging three girls to falsely write letters saying he did not give them drugs or have sex with them. When family of one victim tried to get restraining orders against Hines, he coerced the girl to lie in a letter.
“Age and finesse” allowed Hines to manipulate girls who weren’t able “to discern or recognize the evilness of his ways,” one mother of a victim told the court.
At the sentencing, Burgess rejected a suggestion that Hines was a meth addict and thus not responsible for his crimes. “There was one adult in the room. One adult. And that was you!” Burgess said. “I don’t care if you were drunk. I don’t care if you were on methamphetamine or oxycodone.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Sayers-Fay prosecuted the case. Hines was arrested in August 2011. Hines was initially set for sentencing in November, but Burgess rejected an earlier plea agreement.
U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler commended the persistence of the families in the case and the work of the FBI and the Anchorage Police Vice Unit as part of the Innocence Lost Task Force. The case began when Homer Police investigated a sexual abuse of a minor case. Homer Police Chief Mark Robl said that police then notified the FBI.
Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.