Man charged with church burglaries faces new indictments

Jonathan Calvin Hamilton, 33, of Linden faces a number of new charges following his arrest for possession of a controlled substance on Jan. 14, including failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements, possession of child pornography, and sexual performance of a child.

The new development comes after Hamilton’s initial arrest in Hughes Springs for possession of methamphetamine, where Officer Jimmy Simpler noticed Hamilton’s tattoos resembled those seen on the suspect of the Hughes Springs church burglary in surveillance footage provided by the church. A search of Hamilton’s car revealed that he was also in possession of a pry bar, a flashlight, and a black and silver ball cap which were seen used by the suspect in the surveillance footage. Hamilton was taken into custody and housed at the Cass County Detention Center.

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Hamilton has been a convicted sex offender since 2011 and was sentenced to five years in TDC for sexual assault of a child. Hamilton is required to register as a sex offender for life on a yearly basis and has been doing so at Linden Police Department since his release from TDC in 2016. Hamilton allegedly reported that he was living at his mother’s home in Linden. However, detec tives determined he had been staying a number of nights at the home of his girlfriend and failed to report those overnight stays to sex offender registration officials, putting him in violation of the law.

After a search warrant resulted in the confiscation of Hamilton’s cell phone at the time of arrest, Officer Randy Kennedy was able to convince Hamilton to provide the access code for the cell phone in an interview conducted at Cass County Jail on Jan. 22. Hamilton confessed to committing the burglaries of nine different churches within the Cass County area between December 2020 and January 2021 with a juvenile teen.

Hamilton warned Kennedy that he would find nude photos on the confiscated cell phone of his 16-year-old step-daughter. A forensic analysis of Hamilton’s phone was conducted a few days later, where investigators found text messages and SnapChat messages between Hamilton and his step-daughter that were sexual in nature, connecting Hamilton to the indictment against him of possession of child pornography and sexual performance of a child.

Investigators believe that Hamilton violated his sex offender registration requirements by failing to report he was staying at the home of his girlfriend and by failing to notify of social media accounts he held.

He is being held at Cass County Jail.