Michigan man gets life in prison after kidnapping, sexually assaulting Lubbock teen

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - A 22-year-old Michigan man has been sentenced to life in prison after kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl from Lubbock.

After just an hour of deliberation in June 2022, a jury convicted Thomas John Boukamp on all 16 charges. Here are the sentences issued for each count, including two concurrent life sentences with no possibility of parole:

• Count 1: Transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual conduct - life sentence.
• Count 2: Travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct - 360 months, which is 30 years.
• Count 3: Enticement and attempted enticement of a minor - life sentence.
• Count 4: Receipt of child pornography - 240 months.
• Count 5: Cyberstalking - 100 months.
• Count 6: Receipt of child pornography - 240 months.
• Counts 7-16: Production and attempted production of child pornography - 360 months.

He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix on Thursday afternoon. All sentences will be served concurrently.

Court documents show Boukamp was strongly urged to not represent himself, but he said he understood the penalties he faced if found guilty and insisted. He was appointed a public defender as stand-by counsel.

Boukamp had a heated exchange with Judge Hendrix, proclaiming his hate and anger for the government and for the judge himself, while insisting on his love for the victim:

“I am angry all the time,” Boukamp said. “I’m sad, I’m lonely, I’m hate-filled. I called you terrible things (the judge). I hate you. I hate the government, I hate America. The reason I hate so much is because I love so much. I loved someone I connected with, I was filled with violent sexual fantasies and then I thought I had found someone who understood me. I didn’t want to take advantage of her. I could never picture myself here. The family, my family was not a concern, it was all about her...I loved her.”

Judge Hendrix called Boukamp “a dangerous pedophile” and referred to the government’s condemnation of him, blaming autism for his actions.

“You used the internet to find and prey on young girls,” Judge Hendrix said. “You tormented her, you manipulated her into sending you images, you tortured her into going with you. You told her you would murder her family, you raped her...strangled her and many other things. You have one of the highest offence levels I have ever seen at 52, we only go up to 43. You are a dangerous pedophile. You think the laws are unjust. I agree with the government blaming your situation on being diagnosed on the autism spectrum is very disrespectful to those who have autism. I see no atonement, acceptance or remorse from you. I have to consider your risk to society which is significant.”

“This man stalked and sexually assaulted a 14-year-old, then had the gall to claim in federal court that their so-called ‘relationship’ was consensual,” U.S. Attorney Chad E. Meacham said. “The child, who bravely faced her abuser in court, asserted in no uncertain terms that his advances were unwelcome. By law, 14-year-olds simply cannot consent to sexual contact with adults. We are immensely proud of this child and hope this sentence brings some solace to her and her family,” .

“This defendant displayed reprehensible behavior, which was countered by the bravery of the victim that so courageously testified against him,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Matthew J. DeSarno. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to do everything in our power to seek justice for victims and their families, hold perpetrators accountable and protect others from harm.”

Family members reported the 14-year-old girl missing on Nov. 13, 2020, leaving Terra Vista Middle School in Lubbock. Investigators found her in Michigan on Nov. 23, 2020.

The FBI’s assistance was requested after investigators found evidence on her electronic devices “that indicated she was possibly enticed and taken out of state,” police said in a news release.

Investigators tracked her to Alden, Mich., where the teenager was found with “an adult male subject,” police said. That male was identified as Boukamp. The girl was turned over to Child Protective Services workers in Michigan and was taken to a hospital to be evaluated, police said. She was then reunited with her family.

Boukamp was arrested in Alden, Michigan. He was transferred to the Lubbock County Detention Center in December 2020.

The U.S. Department of Justice released more details and these victim statements on Thursday afternoon:

According to evidence presented at trial, Mr. Boukamp met the child, identified in court as Jane Doe, on the instant messaging platform Discord when she was just 13 years old.

The pair exchanged a series of messages, in which he threatened to hurt her family if she disclosed their budding “relationship.”

Mr. Boukamp later transported Jane Doe, then 14 years of age, to his home in Michigan, where he sexually assaulted her, forcibly removed her braces with pliers, strangled, and hit her.

The victim’s father testified at trial that when she ran away to Michigan, his terrified daughter brought her baby blanket with her.

The victim herself also testified at trial and described the abuse she suffered at Boukamp’s hands.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecutors introduced into evidence a recorded jailhouse phone call in which Mr. Boukamp insisted he would not apologize for “quote unquote ‘raping a 14-year-old.’”

“I like teenage girls! They don’t like that I like that,” he said of federal agents and prosecutors. “I frankly don’t care what the morality of this current time and place says. It’s not wrong. There’s nothing wrong about it. And they’re not going to ever convince me of its wrongness. So up theirs. I hate this nation.”

Reminded that authorities were monitoring his jailhouse calls, he threatened, “if you’re listening to this, yeah, your family is going to die.”

“Play this at my [expletive] sentencing! Do it! I hate you!” he said, before hurling specific invectives at a federal judge and two federal prosecutors.

At the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorneys also introduced into evidence a letter Mr. Boukamp wrote to a family member noting his victim’s supposed “betrayal” and asking for help to escape prison.

The victim’s father submitted a statement to the court describing the trauma his daughter continues to endure:

“Her childhood was ended too soon. He took that from her,” he said. “She struggles with her self-esteem. I don’t know if she’ll ever be able to truly love herself again… We hope that she can be okay. We hope that she can make it through this. We know that she will never be the same. We know that she will never get her innocence back.”

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas and Detroit Field Offices, the Lubbock Police Department, the Michigan State Police, and the Antrim County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation with the assistance of the Child Advocacy Center of the South Plains. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Callie Woolam and Jeff Haag prosecuted the case.

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