NORRISTOWN — A Philadelphia man will spend more than a dozen years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old Jenkintown girl on multiple occasions while he was a guest in her family’s home.
Justyn C. Wharton, 37, of the 5900 block of Reach Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Wednesday to 12½ to 25 years in a state correctional institution on charges of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child less than 16, corruption of a minor and endangering the welfare of a minor in connection with incidents that occurred between August and December of 2024.
Judge Thomas M. DelRicci, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Wharton to complete three years of probation consecutive to parole, meaning Wharton will be under court supervision for 28 years.
Wharton, who pleaded guilty to the charges in June, will receive credit for the 296 days he spent in jail while awaiting court action on the charges.
Wharton also faces a lifetime requirement to report his address to state police in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act, previously known as Megan’s Law.
A sheriff’s deputy escorts Justyn Wharton to his sentencing hearing in Montgomery County Court on Sept. 16, 2026. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. – MediaNews Group)
DelRicci recommended that state corrections officials place Wharton under sex offender supervision and mandate that he have no contact with the victim or her family. The judge ordered Wharton to comply with all recommendations for treatment stemming from a psychosexual evaluation.
Wharton showed no emotion as he carefully read a victim impact letter written by the victim’s mother and presented to the judge during the sentencing hearing. The letter was not read in open court.
Wharton did not address the judge, nor offer any statement of remorse, before the sentence was imposed. He did not comment to a reporter as sheriff’s deputies escorted him from the courtroom to begin serving the sentence.
Justyn Wharton is escorted by a deputy sheriff from a Montgomery County courtroom on Sept. 16, 2026, to begin serving prison term. (Photo by Carl Hessler Jr. – MediaNews Group)
Wharton knew the girl’s family and had access to the girl when he visited the family’s home along Florence Avenue in Jenkintown.
Assistant District Attorney Margot S. Weitz prosecuted the case and sought a state prison term for Wharton. Defense lawyer Jennifer Marie Buono represented Wharton during the court proceedings.
An investigation began in June 2025, when Pennsylvania State Police at the Skippack barracks received a ChildLine report that alleged Wharton had text communications with a female juvenile from Jenkintown that “were sexual in nature,” according to a criminal complaint.
ChildLine is a child abuse reporting service operated by the state Department of Human Services. Once received, the information is quickly transmitted to the appropriate investigating agency.
During the investigation, the mother of the 15-year-old girl provided state police with the girl’s cellphone, and a review of the contents revealed text exchanges between the victim and Wharton, according to the criminal complaint filed by state police Trooper Richard L. Vose III.
“The texts included sexually explicit images and videos of them both,” Vose alleged.
When police interviewed the teenage girl, she revealed that Wharton and she had sexual contact on multiple occasions when he visited her family’s residence. The girl said she and Wharton, who was 35 years old at the time, also exchanged nude images via text, according to court documents.
“Upon reviewing the (victim’s) phone download, I observed text conversations between Justyn and the (victim) that were sexual in nature. In several of the conversations, Justyn requested sexually explicit images and videos from the (victim) and he sent sexually explicit images and videos of himself to the (victim),” Vose alleged.
Testimony revealed that Wharton was evaluated by the Pennsylvania Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, which determined he did not meet the legal criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator, a designation that imposes more stringent restrictions on offenders while they are on parole and probation, including mandatory counseling.
Other charges of 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 were dismissed against Wharton as part of the plea agreement.