A 42-year-old Reelsville man could be a senior citizen by the time he gets out of prison following his sentencing Thursday on sexual misconduct with a minor and child pornography charges.
Casey W. Grayson, who was convicted last month of two counts of Level 4 felony sexual misconduct with a minor resulting in intercourse, one count of Level 6 felony sexual misconduct with a minor and 10 counts of Level 6 felony possession of child pornography, was sentenced by Putnam Circuit Court Judge Matthew Headley to 35 years in prison. Grayson was ordered to serve 33 years within the confines of the Department of Correction (DOC) and two years on home detention as a term of future probation.
Putnam County Prosecutor Austin Malayer, who said the maximum sentence Grayson could have faced was 36 years in the DOC, was pleased by the result but said stiffer penalties are need for child predators and the devastating results of their crimes, especially against someone as young as the 14-year-old victim in this case.
“My position has always been that the penalties in these type cases need to be revisited and made much more stringent,” Malayer told the Banner Graphic. “I’m happy in terms of what the potential sentence was based on but child predators need to be dealt with more severely.”
Malayer explained that later in the day Thursday, a Cloverdale man was due to be sentenced to 40 years for dealing in methamphetamine.
“Dealing meth is a terrible situation for a community,” the prosecutor conceded, suggesting however that child predators are just as horrible, if not worse for what their presence does to a community.
Grayson was arrested Dec. 23, 2024 after Indiana State Police initiated a criminal investigation, responding to a report a minor female had been inappropriately touched by an adult male. The victim had disclosed the activity to her mother.
The investigation determined that Grayson committed sexual misconduct with the female in the bedroom of his Reelsville area home on Ivanwald Drive.
Malayer noted that Grayson had called the victim a liar throughout the proceedings but Thursday changed his focus, claiming the State Police detective had made up the actions that led to charges against him. At one point he even suggested, “there’s still a predator on the loose.”
Malayer responded by asking, “Was it that predator on the loose who downloaded 4,000 images to your phone (and other devices)?”
Grayson had no answer for that.
In sentencing Grayson, Judge Headley gave him 10 years in prison, all executed within the DOC, for the Level 4 felony charge of sexual misconduct with a minor.
The judge dismissed counts 2 and 3 as the additional misconducts arose from the same episode.
Headley sentenced him to five years (all in the DOC) each on four of the 10 counts of possession of child pornography, while the remaining six counts were sentenced at a total of five years — three in the DOC and two on home detention as a term of probation.
Four different download dates for the child porn were treated as separate incidents of criminal conduct.
On Aug. 27, it took a Circuit Court jury less than an hour to find Grayson guilty on all counts.
