A 24-year-old Westminster man who lured an 11-year-old runaway from an afternoon basketball game and molested him in a nearby field was sentenced yesterday to 12 years in prison.
Minutes before Circuit Judge Francis M. Arnold suspended all but 12 years of two consecutive 20-year prison terms, Victor Lyn Toulson Jr., of the first block of E. Main St., pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual offense.
According to court records and a statement of facts read in court by Assistant State's Attorney Kathi Hill, the 11-year-old boy had run away from his foster parents May 17, a day before he was approached by Toulson while he was standing near basketball courts behind the Westminster post office.
Toulson "began talking to [the boy] about him trusting people and that he shouldn't be out there alone," Cpl. Wayne R. Moffatt, one of the arresting officers, wrote in charging documents filed shortly before Toulson's May 24 arrest.
Toulson, Ms. Hill said yesterday, suggested that he and the boy go to his place. The pair walked about six blocks from the basketball courts. The man directed the boy to walk along a path.
The boy was forced to perform a sex act and, Ms. Hill said, he was sodomized. Toulson told the boy, "I'm going to kill you, punk," if he wasn't cooperative, Ms. Hill said.
Toulson later told police that it was the boy who initiated the sexual contact. "He's a runaway. I had no idea what was happening," Ms. Hill quoted Toulson's statement to Carroll sex abuse investigators. "I'm a black man in a white area. You're going to believe what you want to believe."
Toulson said nothing before Judge Arnold pronounced his sentence; the 12-year term was part of a binding plea agreement to which the judge had agreed.
Toulson has been in and out of prison for years, according to court records. In an interview the day after Toulson's arrest, his mother, Linda Coleman said, "It's been a while since he's been in jail and he's been doing pretty well.
"He's a well-liked person, he has good manners. He's a good-natured person who would help you if you needed it. I can't believe that he would do anything like that to that little boy."