Ex-church volunteer sentenced to 60 years to life for sexually abusing boys

A former Sunday school volunteer was sentenced Friday to 60 years to life in prison for sexually abusing young boys, including some he met through churches in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

Sending 51-year-old Christopher McKenzie to prison presumably for the rest of his life ensures he will not be able to hurt anyone else, Orange County Superior Court Judge Patrick Donahue said after handing down his decision.

Jurors convicted McKenzie in July of 20 felonies related to molesting five boys and trying to lure a sixth into sexual situations. The charges included lewd acts with a child under 14, possession of child pornography and using a minor for sex acts.

During the trial, prosecutors laid out a pattern of McKenzie grooming victims by inviting them to help on his rounds as a pool cleaner, watching movies, buying them fast food and taking them on camping trips.

Prosecutors said McKenzie met three of his victims at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa, where he volunteered from 2007 until he was arrested in 2012. McKenzie met one of the victims at Christ Church by the Sea in Newport Beach, where he volunteered before Rock Harbor, according to prosecutors.

According to prosecutors, McKenzie repeatedly raped and molested one victim over the span of eight years, starting in 1996, when the boy was 8 years old.

“Mr. McKenzie, through manipulation, gained the trust and love of these young men,” Donahue said.

After getting close to them, McKenzie often would offer victims cash to pose for nude photos, insisting he had an artist friend who needed a new model for sculptures, according to victims’ testimony.

Prosecutors said McKenzie molested the boys while he rubbed oil on their bodies for the photo shoots or as they showered after helping him work on pools.

The brother of one of the victims spoke in court before the sentencing.

“I cannot put into words the feelings I felt when my brother first told me what this monster did to him,” he said.

The Daily Pilot is not identifying the brother in order to avoid identifying the victim as well.

Prison is not a severe enough punishment for McKenzie, said the brother, who suggested castration at the least.

“I hope Christopher McKenzie rots in hell,” he said.

However, an alleged victim who was unable to testify at trial — leading prosecutors to drop charges related to him — said he forgave McKenzie.

The man was not in court Friday, but prosecutor Heather Brown read a statement from him.

The abuse, the man wrote, drove him to drugs and other self-destructive behavior, but he has recovered.

“A door opened for me that has led me to understand why this happened and how it was not my fault,” the man wrote. “This led me to forgive the man that abused me, not for his own benefit, but for mine.”

McKenzie could have been sentenced to 135 years to life in prison if Donahue imposed the maximum penalty.

Public defender Darren Thompson contended that would be “disproportionately unfair” compared with sentences for crimes like murder.

He asked Donahue to impose a term that would give McKenzie a legitimate opportunity to be paroled.

But Brown argued that if McKenzie were ever freed, he would immediately return to posing as a devout man to snare unsuspecting victims.

“There’s nothing but emotional wreckage lying in the wake of Mr. McKenzie,” she said.

Outside the courtroom after the hearing, McKenzie’s mother, Bonni Schumpert, called the sentence “heartbreaking.”

“He’s my only son. He was the one to care for me in my future,” she said. “He’s an honest, decent, respectable man.”