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William C. Byers Augusta, 20, was sentenced Tuesday in Cumberland County Court to 45 to 90 years in state prison on multiple counts of rape of a child.
(File photo. )
CARLISLE - He repeatedly raped a 6-year-old boy and broadcast some of those rapes over the internet.
For this, William Byers Augusta was a bit of a celebrity for the "monsters" who watched those videos, Cumberland County Senior Assistant District Attorney Nathan Boob told the court on Tuesday.
And for Byers Augusta, 20, the prosecutor said only a sentence that would put him behind bars for the rest of his life would be appropriate.
Beyond raping the 6-year-old boy, Byers Augusta tied him up, slapped him, kicked him and penetrated him with the handle of a hammer.
"It doesn't get any more cruel or unusual than that," Boob said.
Judge Thomas A. Placey sentenced Byers Augusta to 45 to 90 years behind bars followed by 30 years of probation.
He pleaded guilty to charges in October that include multiple counts of rape of a child.
According to police, the investigation and charges unfolded like this:
Byers Augusta broadcast a rape of the boy over the internet, which was discovered and recorded by authorities in Canada, between July 22 and 23, 2015.
They contacted the North Middleton Township Police Department, who immediately executed a search warrant and matched details in the home to what was broadcast online.
Investigators found several electronic devices in the home, including a laptop, and an analysis of those devices uncovered nine videos showing Byers Augusta raping the 6-year-old.
In one video, Byers Augusta repeatedly kicked the boy in the stomach, smacked him in the face, choked him and forced him to perform oral sex on him.
In another video, the boy was naked and tied up with his arms behind his back, and Byers Augusta forced the boy to perform oral sex on him.
Most of the videos involved Byers Augusta penetrating the boy's anus.
Also found on Byers Augusta's various electronics were 50 images of child pornography he had obtained.
Police soon uncovered a 10th video involving both Byers Augusta and Ira Task, 62.
Byers Augusta brought the boy to Task's home on North Second Street in Harrisburg, where both Task and Byers Augusta simultaneously raped the boy while Byers Augusta recorded the act.
Task wore no protection and knew he had been HIV positive since 1994.
Task was sentenced on June 6 to 17 1/2 to 40 years in state prison.
Byers Augusta had pleaded guilty October 18 to charges that include 11 counts of rape of a child, as well as charges of aggravated indecent assault of a child, aggravated assault, possession of child pornography, and criminal conspiracy to commit rape of a child.
At Tuesday's sentencing, Byers Augusta apologized for his actions and said he was coerced into it after he was seeking companionship and getting involved in some of the chat rooms through which he broadcast the rapes.
"I'm not sexually attracted to children. I'm not," Byers Augusta said. "I fell into some dumb things."
He said he regrets everything he did.
But Dr. Robert Stein of the state's sexually-violent predator assessment board said there is sufficient evidence that concludes Byers Augusta meets that assessment "because of a pattern of sadistic behavior," as well as the "unusually cruelty inflicted on the victim," and the victim's age.
But his attorney, Marlin Markley, said Byers Augusta was not only coerced into these actions by the much older adults in these chat rooms, but he was also committing the abuses that had been done to him in the past.
But the videos, Boob pointed out "documented his abuse and encouraged people all over the world to tune in to what he was doing... It encouraged those monsters to seek out other people to participate in this kind of heinous activity."
In all the cases he has handled, Boob said this is among the worst he has seen.
"This I will never get out of my head, watching the videos of what this man did to that boy," Boob said. "It doesn't get any more cruel or unusual than that."
Byers Augusta also has a pending federal case.