CHEROKEE COUNTY, Texas — An East Texas man has been sentenced to 50 years for kidnapping two children who were at the center of an AMBER Alert and continuous sexual assault in Cherokee County.
Jesse Ray Schmidt, 33, of Douglass, was convicted of continuous sexual assault of child and aggravated kidnapping on Feb. 8. He has now been sentenced to 50 years in prison, according to the Cherokee County District Attorney's Office.
Both charges are from incidents happened about July 1, 2021 through Aug. 30, 2021, the DA's Office said.
Around 8:45 p.m. on Aug. 30, 2021, the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office received a call from the mother of two children who said she left her kids with Schmidt in Rusk around 1:15 p.m. and when she got back home, around 4:30 p.m., Schmidt, the children and numerous firearms were missing.
Around midnight on Aug. 31, officials say Schmidt's cell phone was pinged in the Kilgore area. After not being able to locate Schmidt or the kids, an AMBER Alert was issued around 5 a.m. The Texas Rangers, FBI and U.S. Marshals were called in to assist in the search.
Around 10:35 a.m. on Aug. 31, 2021, Kilgore police found Schmidt and the kids outside a Kilgore motel. The children were released into the custody of Child Protective Services.
Schmidt was then arrested on a kidnapping charge and booked into the Cherokee County Jail. Charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child and aggravated kidnapping were added later.
Schmidt was also indicted by a grand jury in Gregg County for aggravated sexual assault of a child. He was booked into the Gregg County Jail on Monday, Feb. 20 without bond.
He has a guilty plea scheduled for March 9 in Gregg County, according to court online records.