TAZEWELL COUNTY, Va.- The Tazewell County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office reported on Thursday that two men from Virginia were sentenced to life in prison and additional years of imprisonment after being found guilty of child sexual assault crimes in February. The convictions were handed down on Thursday.
Herbert Junior Sparks, age 50, from North Tazewell, Virginia, was found guilty of multiple charges, including child endangerment, rape of a child under the age of 13, forcible sodomy, producing or making child pornography, and more, according to the attorney for the Commonwealth of Virginia. He was sentenced to six life sentences in addition to an additional 95 years to serve in prison.
Following his conviction on charges that included aggravated sexual battery of a child under the age of 13 and forcible sodomy of a child under the age of 13, Joshua Adam Keen, who is 41 years old and lives in Richlands, Virginia, was given a sentence of life in prison in addition to an extra seventy years of imprisonment, as stated by the counsel for the Commonwealth of Virginia.
In addition, Keen entered a guilty plea to the charge of evading capture after being taken to a local hospital and then reportedly being at large for close to a year.
Both of these cases were prosecuted by Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Kati Asbury at the time.