A 37-year-old Philadelphia man will spend at least the next 12.5 years in a Pennsylvania state prison after admitting he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old Jenkintown girl on multiple occasions, exploiting his family's ties to hers to gain access to her home. Justyn C. Wharton was sentenced to 12.5 to 25 years behind bars, followed by three years of probation, meaning he could remain under court supervision for as long as 28 years total.
Plea Deal Resolves Wide-Ranging Charges
According to The Mercury, Wharton pleaded guilty in June to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child less than 16, corruption of a minor, and endangering the welfare of a minor. Montgomery County prosecutors agreed to drop a longer list of charges as part of the deal, including statutory sexual assault, indecent assault, unlawful contact with a minor, aggravated indecent assault, knowingly permitting a child to photograph or film a sex act, and possession of child sexual abuse material. Assistant District Attorney Margot S. Weitz prosecuted the case, while defense attorney Jennifer Marie Buono represented Wharton.
The offenses occurred between August and December 2024, when Wharton was 35 years old, according to the same report. He knew the victim's family and had access to the girl when visiting their home on Florence Avenue in Jenkintown, a densely packed borough of roughly 4,700 residents that sits about 10 miles north of Center City Philadelphia, surrounded entirely by Cheltenham and Abington townships, per background detailed by Wikipedia.
Investigation Began With a ChildLine Report
The case surfaced in June 2025, when the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Skippack received a ChildLine report alleging Wharton had sexual text communications with a female juvenile from Jenkintown. ChildLine is the child abuse reporting service operated by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services, and the Mercury's report notes the victim's mother provided investigators with the girl's cellphone. Trooper Richard L. Vose III filed the criminal complaint, alleging that a review of text exchanges between the victim and Wharton turned up sexually explicit images and videos of both of them, and that Wharton had requested explicit images and videos while also sending his own to the girl.
Investigators say Wharton and the girl exchanged nude images by text, and that he had sexual contact with her on multiple occasions at her family's residence. The digital evidence at the center of this case echoes another recent Montgomery County prosecution, in which a Texas man was extradited after allegedly soliciting explicit photos from a Whitpain Township teen through online chat apps.
Judge Orders Lifetime Registration, No Contact
Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas M. DelRicci accepted the plea agreement and ordered three years of probation to run consecutive to Wharton's parole. DelRicci recommended that state corrections officials place Wharton under sex offender supervision and that he have no contact with the victim or her family. Wharton will also be ordered to comply with treatment recommendations stemming from a psychosexual evaluation, and he will receive credit for 296 days already spent in jail awaiting court action.
During sentencing, Wharton read a victim impact letter written by the girl's mother but did not offer a statement of remorse or otherwise address the judge, the Mercury's report states. Under Pennsylvania's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, Wharton is required to register as a sex offender for life, according to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Megan's Law Public Website. That designation applies regardless of a separate finding by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, which determined Wharton did not meet the legal criteria to be classified as a Sexually Violent Predator — a designation that would have imposed more stringent parole and probation restrictions, including mandatory counseling.
A Broader Pattern in Pennsylvania Courts
Wharton's negotiated sentence of 12.5 to 25 years followed his guilty plea in the case. Statewide, judicial data published by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts showed 32,075 individuals were charged in 36,386 child abuse cases between 2019 and 2023, with 56% of defendants between 19 and 35 years old and endangering the welfare of children accounting for 23% of all filings, according to the Unified Judicial System of Pennsylvania.
Wharton's investigation began with a ChildLine report. The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services says ChildLine receives more than 40,000 reports of suspected child abuse statewide each year, with mandated reporters filing over 80% of them, per the state's 2025 Annual Child Protective Services Report cited by PAPSA. Montgomery County investigators handling juvenile abuse allegations can also draw on the Mission Kids Child Advocacy Center in Plymouth Meeting, which opened an expanded facility in May to conduct neutral forensic interviews and streamline prosecutions.
