Local woman sentenced in child sexual abuse case
April Dawn Baxley-Humbert maintained her innocence and asked for mercy before she was sentenced Wednesday to two to five years in state prison for sexually assaulting a now-8-year-old boy three years ago. Before Judge John F. Wagner Jr. handed down his sentence, Humbert, 33, made a weeping appeal, claiming the judicial system failed her and somebody planted the story about the assault in the boy’s mind.
She said she turned down a plea bargain, in which she would have already been freed from prison, and told the truth at her trial but was found guilty.
“I’m facing prison for something I didn’t do,” Humbert said. “Whoever planted these disgusting lies should be here instead of me.”
She said she doesn’t use drugs, considers herself a decent person and said she was innocent of all charges.
She also apologized for the behavior of her husband, James Lester Humbert, at their June 5 trial and asked Wagner to sentence her to a boot camp.
A jury found Mrs. Humbert guilty of indecent assault and corruption of minors and her husband guilty of corruption of minors.
James Humbert, 42, yelled at the jurors and was removed from the courtroom after refusing to quiet down. He was sentenced to 21/2 to five years in prison. The maximum penalty for both charges is five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
At the trial, the victim testified that April Humbert had sex with him, while James Humbert touched him inappropriately.
State police in Uniontown said the incident occurred in the Humberts’ Bierer Wood Acres apartment in South Union Township between May and November 2000.
Wagner agreed to recommend April Humbert for the state boot camp program, but he ordered her to serve her prison sentence in the State Correctional Institution in Muncy.
The sentence included a requirement that she register with state police annually for 10 years after she is released from prison.
The judge denied a request from Humbert’s court-appointed attorney, Jeffrey Proden, to postpone sentencing until a sexually-violent-predator assessment is completed.
Wagner said she would have to register quarterly with state police for the rest of her life she if she is found to be a sexually violent predator.
The judge’s sentence order calls for Humbert to start serving the state prison term after her current term in the Fayette County Prison ends.
Judge William J. Franks sentenced the Humberts in February 2002 to six months in the county lockup for failing to appear for their original sentencing for convictions for endangering the welfare of children. He also sentenced them to six to 23 months for the crime. They were ordered to serve the sentences consecutively.
In that case, state police charged the couple with physically abusing April Humbert’s 9-yar-old daughter in October 2000.