Full Notification

The Columbia Township Police Department has closed out the case involving Benjamin Keith Mayfield, who was charged on March 12, 2014, with “Using a Computer to Commit A Crime” (7 year felony), “Possession of Child Sexually Abusive Material” (4 year felony), and “Failure to Comply with the Sex Offenders Registration Act” (4 year felony).

The case involved what was initially reported as a harassment. The mother of a 10 year-old girl reported that her daughter had been receiving unsolicited contact through both text messaging and the internet. The mother and her daughter initially believed the subject sending the messages was a stranger.

The early investigation revealed a name for the suspect, which was quickly determined to be an alias. Further digging revealed not only his real name, but the fact that he was a registered sex offender, and that he was in fact known to the mother and her daughter.

After learning the suspect was a registered sex offender, a search warrant was obtained for his residence, in Blackman Township. The Sex Offender Registry was also checked to ascertain whether or not the suspect had properly registered his email addresses and phone numbers, as required by law. He had not. Additionally, multiple Facebook pages were found for the suspect.

The search warrant was executed on Tuesday, March 11, 2014, at approximately 10:00 A.M. Blackman Township Public Safety assisted with the execution of the search warrant. The suspect, 43 year old Benjamin Keith Mayfield, was home alone at the time of the search warrant. Seized pursuant to the search warrant were a computer, multiple cell phones, media storage devices, cd’s, and other relevant evidence.

One image of child pornography was immediately located on one of the cell phones. The remaining evidence was forwarded to the Michigan State Police Crime Lab for processing for other possible evidence. Since his arrest on March 11, 2014, Mayfield has been unable to post bond, and he has been held at the Jackson County Jail.

On August 22, 2014, Mayfield pled guilty to Sex Offender-Fail to register, and Use of computer to commit a crime. On September 24, 2014, Mayfield was sentenced by Judge Beebe. Although the sentencing guidelines called for 0 - 11 months (jail time), the judge found substantial and compelling reasons to deviate upwards, sentencing him to 36 to 84 months in prison, with credit for 197 days already held in jail.