Palmer man gets 68-year sentence for child sex abuse

WASILLA — A superior court judge sentenced a Palmer man who admitted to molesting three first-grade girls and videotaping one of them in a sexual act to a 68-year sentence Monday, authorities said.

Christopher Byers, 30, was arrested in 2013 after two of the girls — by then middle-school-age — spoke with police in Anchorage, authorities said.

Authorities say Byers admitted to abusing the Anchorage girls, then told troopers he’d also abused a 6-year-old girl in Palmer a half-dozen times within the last year, and twice videotaped the Palmer girl performing a sex act with his iPhone. When confronted by the girl’s mother, Byers deleted the video. Troopers later found five videos of the girl on Byers’ laptop.

Byers pleaded guilty in September 2015.

Alaska State Troopers originally charged Byers with more than a dozen counts, including four counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, four counts of incest, and four counts of exploiting a minor by making child porn. Byers also originally faced five separate counts from an Anchorage case filed at the same time: three of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor and two of attempted first-degree sexual abuse of a minor, according to court records.

Monday’s sentencing resolves both the Palmer case and the outstanding Anchorage case, according to prosecuting attorney Melissa Wininger-Howard.

Judge Gregory Heath sentenced Byers to 45 years with 10 suspended on a consolidated count of first-degree sexual assault. The presumptive range had been 35 years, with a possible 99-year maximum. Byers received 10 years with three suspended on a consolidated count of unlawful exploitation of a minor, and 40 years with five years suspended on a second consolidated count of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor from the Anchorage case. With the maximum amount of accumulated good time, Byers will serve at least 45 years before his release.

“The 50-year active time sentence accurately captures the horror of this case and is reflective of the community’s condemnation of sexual offenses that are perpetrated on innocent and defenseless children,” Wininger-Howard wrote, in an e-mail.