Charter Captain Gets Ten Years for Drug, Child Pornography Charges

     A Homer charter boat captain who pled guilty to distributing drugs to minors and possession of child pornography has been sentenced to ten years in prison. Thirty-four-year-old Randall Hines will also have to pay $160,000 in restitution.

     The complaint against Hines came from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and was originally filed August 17th, 2011. 

     In the complaint, FBI Agent Jolene Goeden details an investigation of Hines that found he had given drugs to several teenage girls in the Homer area and had sexual relations with some of them.

     The complaint says that in 2009, Hines gave methamphetamine to a 15-year-old girl and later convinced her to move in with him. When Hines began using the girl to sell methamphetamine in Homer, her mother filed a restraining order against him.

     The complaint says that Hines told the girl to write a letter to the State of Alaska court handling the restraining order, stating that she did not live with him and did not do drugs with him. The girl wrote the letter but later recanted her story.

     Hines was arrested and charged on August 11, 2011. He signed a plea agreement in February of 2012, admitting admitted to supplying methamphetamine and oxycodone to several teenage girls, and to having sexual relations with some of them. He also admitted to obstructing the investigation into his activities after he learned of it.

     In exchange for the plea deal, federal prosecutors dropped some of the charges against Hines, pressing forward with only two of them – Distribution of Drugs to Underage Individuals and Possession of Child Pornography, both felonies.

     On Monday, Hines was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 10 years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $160,000 to a Victims Restitution Fund and will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.

     The prosecutors in the case were Kimberly Sayers-Fay of the U.S. Attorney’s office in Anchorage and Alexandra Gelber of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in Washington, D.C.

     Hines’ sentence was imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess, who recommended Hines serve his sentence at a federal facility in Sheridan, Oregon.