James Weems, a retired Baltimore police officer, received a life sentence in prison after he was found guilty of sexually abusing children at his ex-wife’s daycare, WJZ News reports.
Weems was found guilty of rape, sexual abuse of a minor and showing obscene matter to a minor back in November 2024.
He drove the van for Lil Kidz Kastle, a daycare in Owings Mills owned by his ex-wife, Shanteari Young. Court records reveal disturbing facts of the case, including how Weems admitted to looking at pornography while taking children to school but claimed that he never intentionally showed the children or touched anyone.
An uncle of one of the victims, 10 years old at the time, testified during the trial that the victim’s family found pornography on her tablet and claimed “Mr. James” first showed it to her.
According to WUSA9, data found by an FBI agent who specializes in location data testified that Weems looked at pornographic materials over 170 times between January and July 2022 while in close proximity to numerous Baltimore-area elementary schools where he was scheduled to drop off and pick up children for the daycare.
Young testified that she remembered Weems paying special attention to one of the victims, often referring to her as his “little buddy” and “my little helper.”
The former daycare owner, who is serving time for allegedly shooting Weems in July 2022 after learning about the allegations, said the young victim was delayed for her age and mostly kept to herself and her sister while attending the daycare.
Assistant state’s attorney Zarena Sita said that victim’s like that are who predators are known to prey on.
One of the victim’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against Weems in March 2025 to hold him financially accountable, alleging negligence and false imprisonment. The litigation claimed the young victim has dealt with nightmares and headaches due to the abuse following the ordeal, which attorney Jonathan Schochor called “devastating.”
“These are lifelong injuries,” Schochor said. “This young lady confronted what happened in court. Whether she can emotionally confront what happened in her life remains to be seen.”
However, Weems’ attorneys, Thomas Pavlinic and Thomas McDowell, claim the victim’s reluctance and contradictory testimony at times should have given the jurors enough reasonable doubt.
“I have empathy for [the alleged victim],” Pavlinic said. “I think she is a victim in this case. Not of Mr. Weems, but of the system.”
The life sentence isn’t the end of Weems’ legal troubles. He still faces an additional 23 charges related to the other alleged victims, including three more counts of second-degree rape. Young was also named in the civil suit, alleging the daycare should have been aware of Weems being “addicted to internet pornography and would habitually watch pornography every chance he had…”
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