Couple plead guilty to sex acts with child

A Watertown couple who already pleaded guilty to federal charges that they brought children into the state for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity have now pleaded guilty to a state charge that they sexually preyed upon another child.

Christopher I. Jansen, 28, and Amanda D. Jansen, 27, each pleaded guilty Friday in Jefferson County Court to predatory sexual act against a child. Both face sentences of 15 years to life in prison at sentencing March 15, according to a contemplated sentence outlined in court.

Both admitted Friday they committed repeated sexual acts against a child under the age of 11 between Feb. 1, 2008, and Sept. 18, 2008, at their South Hycliff Drive apartment. According to an indictment handed up in January, the child involved in the state incident was a 1-year-old girl.

The couple pleaded guilty in October in U.S. District Court, Utica, to one count of conspiracy to transport minors in interstate commerce, with the intent that the minors engage in unlawful sexual activity, as well as two counts of aggravated sexual abuse.

For that offense, Amanda Jansen faces a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of 30 years and a maximum sentence of life in prison. Christopher Jansen faces a mandatory life sentence. Federal court sentencing for both is set for Feb. 19. Any sentence imposed in County Court will run concurrently with the federal sentence.

Both admitted in federal court that in June 2008, Christopher Jansen traveled to Kentucky to pick up four children, ages 13, 8, 5 and 3, and that he brought them to Watertown for a summer visit. They also both admitted they drugged and sexually abused the 8-year-old, a boy, and the 5-year-old, a girl.

The 1-year-old victim in the case to which the Jansens pleaded guilty Friday was separate from the other victims, District Attorney Cindy F. Intschert said in court.

The couple's arrest in September 2008 in Watertown stemmed from a "cyber-tip" given to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Based on the tip, a warrant was executed at the couple's home, where child pornography allegedly was found.

Federal court records show that Christopher Jansen admitted on April 30, 1997, in Boone County District Court in Kentucky to having sex with a girl several times over a few years, beginning when she was 7 years old. He was convicted of first-degree rape and first-degree sexual abuse. He was released from Kentucky's Department of Juvenile Justice system by court order on Nov. 10, 1999.

A state police investigator said at the time of their arrests in Watertown that Amanda Jansen was a soldier in the 10th Mountain Division's 710th Brigade Support Battalion at Fort Drum and that her husband worked with computers.

Judge Kim H. Martusewicz revoked both their bail Friday and the Jansens were returned to U.S. Marshals Service custody.