Convicted Sex Offender Up For Parole After 17 Months In Jail

A convicted child molester is up for parole after being locked up a little more than a year.

He is guilty of molesting a 6-year-old autistic boy. The punishment given for the crime was two years in a prison the rest on probation; probation that could come earlier than the court expected.

Court Records show Teddy Davis responded to a sex ad on Craigslist. It led to an invitation to Jonathan Smith's home in Moore. That's where two men carried out a sex crime against a 6-year-old autistic boy. 

Davis pleaded guilty to fondling the young boy while Smith watched and masturbated.

"I think people that do things to children probably need to serve a very long time in jail." 

Southwestern Oklahoma State University Criminologist Dr. Howard Kurtz is surprised at the sentences given to the two offenders. After just 17 months in custody, Davis is now up for parole.

"My first concern is the safety of the community," said Kurtz.

Kurtz is also a former probation officer. He pointed out there is up to a 40 % chance a child molester will reoffend. When paired with reports of misconduct in Davis' file, Kurtz believes the Pardon and Parole Board might be hesitant to give him an early release.

"They always look at what happened while people have been incarcerated and still predicting the success on probation is a really tough thing to do," Kurtz said.

No matter what the Pardon and Parole Board and the Governor decide, Davis will be released after two years of jail times as outlined in the terms of his guilty plea.

While on probation, Davis will be supervised and must register as a sex offender. Other restrictions include not using the internet, not owning a camera and not having any contact with children.

Davis' co-defendant Jonathan Smith is sentenced to 10 years in the custody of Department of Corrections will then be on probation. He is currently being held at the Cleveland County Jail.