Gary Justin Russell, 35. Photo: PA Megan's Law
Gary Justin Russell, 35, of the 60th block of Heron Court, Phoenixville, will be sentenced at a later date.
A convicted one-handed Upper Providence sexually violent predator – who allegedly attempted to flee from Pennsylvania State Police upon finding out about an active warrant against him during an annual check-in –pleaded guilty last week to 12 child sex crime felonies and will be sentenced at a later date.
Gary Justin Russell, 35, of the 60th block of Heron Court, Phoenixville, pleaded guilty to two counts of corruption of minors, nine counts of possession of child pornography, and one count of unlawful contact with a minor, according to court documents.
Judge William R. Carpenter deferred sentencing so that court officials could complete background investigation and risk assessment reports about Russell, including a psychosexual evaluation, according to The Mercury.
Russell faces a possible maximum sentence of 10½ to 21 years in prison on the charges. However, state sentencing guidelines could allow for a lesser sentence.
Russell has been incarcerated at Montgomery County jail since July on $99,000 cash bail, per court documents.
Detectives said a parent contacted them about a male suspect, identified as Russell, who showed inappropriate images to a female juvenile and her friends. Police met with three girls, all around the age of 10, who told police what occurred at 8 p.m. June 4, per the affidavit.
Police said the girls were walking around their neighborhood in the Rivercrest Community, when they were approached by Russell. The victims described him as an adult male wearing dark clothing and a headband, police said.
Russell, police allege, walked in front of the group of girls and then turned to them and said, “Look at this!” Police said Russell was holding his phone which had a photograph of a penis on the screen.
Upper Providence’s Criminal Investigation Division obtained outdoor surveillance video of the incident. They allege a video showed three juvenile females walking on the sidewalk at 8:04 p.m. June 4, and a white male wearing dark clothing and a gray headband walking up the entrance driveway of a home on Quail Drive South.
The man was also missing his left hand, police said.
At first, Russell, police allege, was on the opposite side of the road when he walked into the development. Then, at 8:05 p.m., video allegedly shows him looking at the group of girls, running across the street in their direction, and verbally stating something to them.
Russell then jumped onto the sidewalk in front of the girls and continued walking, police said, before taking out his cellphone and using it, while walking three feet in front of the juveniles.
Police identified Russell via video surveillance, open-source social media photographs, and community interviews, per the affidavit. All three girls reported the same timeline of events, police said.
On June 7, police seized Russell’s Android phone via warrant in order to link him to the investigation pertaining to the corruption of minors incident, police said.
On June 14, per the complaint, police received a USB drive with the extraction of digital contents from Russell’s phone. Police were able to collect multiple images and videos of male genitalia, but also found images that appeared to be child pornography, police said.
Police said five vulgar and sexual images of girls between 10-12 years old in various stages of undress and exposure were found during the initial search on the phone. However, each “image” found was a series which contained anywhere between one to 35 images, per the affidavit.
Authorities then issued a second search warrant for the purpose of finding child pornography-related images, police said.
Police then found 14 more images of young and teenage girls undertaking the same illicit behavior, per the affidavit. As in the prior scenario, each image listed in the affidavit had a series of up to 35 separate images, per the complaint.
Russell has been a resident of the township since November 2003.
He was arrested in March 2014 by Whitpain Township Police on charges of aggravated indecent assault on someone less than 16, and aggravated indecent assault, and later was found guilty by trial on March 18, 2015, per court records. His sentencing required he register as a Pennsylvania sex offender.
According to the PA Megan’s Law database, Russell is a sexually violent predator, who, as of July 18, 2024, is a transient who resides in the area of Walmart on South Trooper Road in West Norriton Township.
Russell is represented by private Colmar attorney Matthew Wilkov.
All suspects and defendants are innocent until proven guilty. This story was compiled using public court records.
