A Henderson County jury convicted 51-year-old James Rooker on two counts of rape and two counts of aggravated statutory rape earlier this month, closing out a case that began when he called a 14-year-old boy into his room while others in the home were sleeping. The jury returned its guilty verdicts on September 4 after a trial that stretched across two days in Henderson County.
According to WBBJ, the assault took place on March 23, 2022, when Rooker raped the juvenile over the course of several hours. The next day, Investigator Jeremiah Adams of the Henderson County Sheriff's Department received a report describing a 14-year-old male who had been raped, and he collected the boy's clothing as evidence before sending it to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab for analysis.
DNA Evidence Sealed the Case Nearly a Year Later
That forensic testing became the backbone of the prosecution. The TBI Crime Lab received the evidence collected on March 24, 2022, and reported its DNA result on January 31, 2023, roughly ten months later, when the lab found Rooker's DNA on the inside crotch of the juvenile's jeans, as reported by Talk-N West TN 101.5 FM WNWS.
Investigators had already questioned Rooker weeks after the initial report. On April 28, 2022, both Investigator Amber Wood of the Henderson County Sheriff's Department and Sergeant Ed McMullen of the Jackson Police Department interviewed him. The station's report notes that Rooker initially claimed nothing had happened and insisted the juvenile had been paid to make the accusations, before later admitting during that same interview that he had sexual relations with the boy, which he described as consensual.
Grand Jury Indictment Followed Lab Confirmation
A Henderson County grand jury did not return its indictment against Rooker until April 3, 2023, roughly two months after the DNA results came back, per the same account. The gap between the initial 2022 report and the 2023 indictment marks the period between the initial report and the indictment.
District Attorney General Jody Pickens, who oversees felony prosecutions across the 26th Judicial District covering Chester, Henderson, and Madison counties, said Rooker sexually abused a minor and will be incarcerated for a long period of time. Pickens said Rooker will now be unable to abuse more young people, and he expressed gratitude to law enforcement officers, Assistant District Attorney General Eric Wood, the Henderson County jurors, and the victim.
What Rooker Faces Under Tennessee Sentencing Law
Under Tennessee sentencing law, rape carries a standard Range I sentence of eight to 12 years. Aggravated statutory rape, the charge tied to Rooker's roughly decades-wide age gap with the 14-year-old victim, is a Class D felony under Tennessee Code § 39-13-506(c), explained by the Law Offices of Meredith Mochel, and typically carries two to four years for first-time offenders.
Those numbers could climb substantially if Rooker is classified as a repeat offender. Under Tennessee Code § 40-35-112, a Range II multiple offender designation would push the Class B rape terms to 12 to 20 years and the Class D counts to four to eight years, while a Range III persistent offender finding would raise the rape terms as high as 20 to 30 years. It remains unclear when Rooker will be formally sentenced, whether the four counts will run concurrently or consecutively, or what offender range he will ultimately be assigned based on his prior record.
A conviction for aggravated statutory rape requires registration on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry under Tennessee Code § 40-39-202, per the Criminal Defense Lawyer resource on the statute.
A Rural County Courtroom, A Regional Prosecutor's Office
The trial unfolded in Henderson County, a rural West Tennessee county established in 1821 that recorded a population of 27,842 in the 2020 U.S. Census, according to the U.S. Census Bureau via Wikipedia. Pickens leads the 26th Judicial District Attorney General's Office, and Sergeant Ed McMullen of the Jackson Police Department participated in an interview with Rooker.
Pickens' office has kept up an active prosecutorial pace in Henderson County. In April 2026, he led Operation TriStar Hammer, a multi-agency sweep that produced 141 grand jury indictments across Chester, Henderson, and Madison counties, as reported by the Chester County Independent. Hoodline previously reported on a fugitive caught in Maury City tied to a separate child rape indictment out of Henderson County, underscoring how the district's prosecutors have pursued a string of serious child sex crime cases in recent months.
