The following is a press release issued by the Mendocino County District Attorney:
Yesterday, Thursday, September 19th, was an in-court day of reckoning for defendant Tomas Yah Pool, age 56, of Fort Bragg.
Defendant Pool was convicted by jury in late July of six separate felony counts of Lewd and Lascivious Acts upon a Child under the age of Fourteen Years.
The evidence heard by the jury in July involved sexual misconduct occurring between the years 2004 to 2020. The age of the three victims ranged from 3 years of age to 6 years of age during the time periods of their respective victimization.
The jury also found true sentencing enhancements alleged by the DA that the defendant committed sexual crimes against more than one child victim; and that the defendant personally inflicted great bodily injury on one child victim who at the time was under the age of 5 years.
After hearing on Thursday afternoon the sentencing arguments of the trial prosecutor, Senior Deputy District Attorney Eloise Kelsey, and the defendant’s court-appointed defense counsel, the case was submitted to the Court for a final sentencing decision.
When all counts were addressed and added up, Mendocino County Superior Court Judge Victoria Shanahan sentenced defendant Pool to state prison and imposed multiple life sentences.
Without going into greater detail and individual count numbers, the court-imposed sentencing outcome equals 123 years to life in state prison, the maximum allowed by law.
The law enforcement agencies that investigated the case, interviewed the victims and witnesses, and diligently gathered the other evidence used at trial to convict the defendant were the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office and the DA’s own in-house Bureau of Investigations.
Additional pretrial, trial, and post-trial support was provided the victims and their families by the advocates in the District Attorney’s Victim/Witness Unit, caring individuals who worked tirelessly to support all child victims and their families.
Again, special thanks are extended to expert witness, Dr. James Crawford-Jakubiak (the Medical Director of the Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland) for his medical expertise and testimony at trial; as well as to Clinical Psychologist Mindy Mechanic, who also testified as an expert witness at trial.
While it should not happen given the math involved, if the defendant is ever released from prison on parole due to future revisionist changes in law by the Legislature, the defendant will be required to register as a sex offender for life with law enforcement wherever he is allowed to live.
However, should the Board of Parole Hearings ever deem defendant Pool eligible for release on parole, he will also become eligible for civil commitment consideration (before release is allowed) as a sexually violent predator (SVP).
California’s SVP statute is unique in that this law allows for an additional indeterminate civil psychiatric commitment of a sex offender after their state prison penal commitment has been served.
