Couple get second sentence for abuse

A Watertown couple already sentenced to life in federal prison for repeatedly sexually abusing children were sentenced Monday in Jefferson County Court to 15 years to life in state prison for a separate but related act.

Christopher I. Jansen, 29, and Amanda D. Jansen, 28, had pleaded guilty Nov. 6 to charges of predatory sexual assault against a child. Both admitted 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.

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 victims in that case were separate from the 1-year-old girl.

They were sentenced Feb. 19 to life in prison without possibility of parole. Both have appealed that sentence to the U.S. Court of Appeals. The state sentence will run concurrently with the federal sentence.