LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A Michigan man currently serving a life sentence for kidnapping and sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl from Lubbock is calling for his sentence to be vacated. He claims his legal counsel failed to properly serve and advise him.
This week, Thomas Boukamp filed a motion to throw out his sentence in the federal case against him. At 22 years old, he was sentenced to life in prison for cyber stalking, kidnapping and sexually assaulting a Lubbock teenager in 2019.
KCBD obtained his appeal. Those court documents outline what Boukamp describes as failures by his legal counsel. He claims his attorneys in 2022 caused an unfair trial and sentence.
He was indicted on five charges in 2020. He was then assigned David Guinn and John Mahoney as pre-trial attorneys.
In the filing, he claims his counsel delayed trial proceedings by two years. In that time, federal prosecutors added 11 new charges related to child pornography to Boukamp’s case, adding 320 years to his potential sentence.
The now 25-year-old claims Mahoney requested a mental competency rehearing and then filed multiple continuances in the case as part of a “bigger strategy.”
On Boukamp’s second federal arraignment, he told the court that he decided he would fire his attorneys and represent himself through trial.
During the trial, he questioned the victim if she still cared for him. She denied it. Boukamp claims if he knew that would happen, he would have never gone to trial and would have instead taken a plea deal.
According to court documents, he claims Mahoney failed to interview the girl, who served as a key witness in the case.
Boukamp was found guilty on all charges. He was appointed attorney Michael King during the sentencing phase.
King filed a request to lower the sentence below life based on Boukamp’s autism diagnosis. The request was shot down by the court.
Boukamp claims he was improperly served by King because he failed to argue his likelihood of rehabilitation, since he was only 22 at the time of the sentencing.
U.S. District Judge James Hendrix sentenced him to life in prison.
In his latest filing, Boukamp is now being represented by Zachary Newland based out of Evergreen, Colorado. If his appeal is granted, he would be released from federal prison and will not be able to be retried based on double jeopardy.
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