Maybe in the end, it was that he just couldn’t get past the fact Amanda Gunn had to have known her husband was sexually abusing and torturing an underage girl but wouldn’t admit it.
On Tuesday, May 24, in U.S. District Court where, in November, Amanda Gunn had told a federal jury of some of the terrible things Michael Peyton Gunn did to her and to a child, Amanda Gunn was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison by Chief U.S. District Court Judge J. Randal Hall.
The sentence was about five years longer that that recommended by the prosecutor because Amanda Gunn did plead guilty and testified against her husband.
Amanda Gunn’s sentencing followed the morning sentencing of her husband. Hall sentenced him to life in prison. There is no parole in the federal system.
In February 2020, a tip from Texas of an image of child pornography led FBI Special Agent Tripp Godbee to the Gunns’ victim. She was being trafficked by Gunn starting when she was barely a teen. Amanda Gunn pleaded guilty last fall to sex trafficking conspiracy.
“I was the child, and I was supposed to be protected,” the teen said in court Tuesday.
But she told the judge she also knew that Amanda Gunn was a victim, too.
“I understand being scared,” she said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara Lyons told the judge that she and Godbee offered Amanda Gunn help and repeatedly asked her to tell the whole truth about what her husband did. Even at his trial, she had the chance to be completely honest, but she was maybe only 75% so, Lyons said.
Maybe Amanda Gunn couldn’t bear to speak in public the full truth what she and her husband did, or maybe she just couldn’t admit it to herself, Lyons said.
But what was most important to Lyons, she told the judge, was what was best for the victim in this case. The teen knew and approved of the prosecutor’s agreement to recommend a sentence of 15 years in prison.
Hall pressed Lyons on the issue of Amanda Gunn’s truthfulness. She says she didn’t know what her husband was doing to a child in their home, that she was in other rooms, or drugged. How did she not know, how could she have not heard a child being tortured? Hall asked.
Lyons was also at a loss to explain. “It bothers me, too,” she said. But for the victim Lyons said she was standing with her recommendation of a 15-year sentence.
Defense attorney Adam Nelson was also at a loss. It’s impossible to put oneself into the position that Amanda Gunn was in. She also was sexually, physically and mentally abused for 10 years before the FBI stopped what was happening by arresting her husband, Nelson said. She has post traumatic stress disorder and is only starting to come out of a fog. But she might not be able to talk about it 10 years from now either, he said.
In the end, Hall said dropping her sentence to 15 years wasn’t justified. He sentenced Amanda Gunn to 235 months in prison. Although it is a significant length of time without parole, he could have gone up to 293 months. She will also serve an additional 20 years on supervised release. The judge also imposed $800,000 for restitution.
