Local jailer Phillip “Chomo” Riley and Michael Clark Sikes both pled guilty on Friday to separate cases involving sexual crimes against children, according to First Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Kaminar.
In June 2025, Lamar County Jail detention officers reported that one of the jailers, Phillip “Chomo” Riley, 29, made statements that he was dating a girl from a local public school.
After confirming the victim had recently turned 15 and observing her forensic interview at the Children’s Advocacy Center, Lamar County Sheriff’s deputies and a Texas Ranger interviewed Riley when he arrived at the jail for work.
Riley confessed to grooming her online by first acting as a suicide awareness counselor before eventually having video chats where she engaged in sexual acts which he recorded. He also admitted that he deleted the files from his phone upon learning that a Ranger was interviewing her parents.
During his confession, Riley told detectives that he had displayed the victim’s panties from his rearview mirror. Detectives retrieved the underwear from Riley’s vehicle after the interview.
“Riley accepted a sentence of ten years in prison and lifetime registration as a sex offender instead of facing a jury,” said Kaminar. “A plea agreement in this case means that his victim was spared from having to take the stand and testify about Riley’s calculated manipulation and ensures that he won’t be able to appeal his guilty plea.”
Michael Clark Sikes, 39, also pleaded guilty to multiple sexual offenses and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. Sikes’s victim was a 13 year old girl who had been placed in a group home after being sexually abused by a relative.
A CPS caseworker discovered that she had a cellphone and Sikes had called her from the Lamar County Jail’s recorded phone lines while there on an unrelated charge.
After learning from others in the group home that they had walked in on the victim sending nude photos to Sikes, detectives seized his phones.
An FBI analysis of his phones found a recording of Sikes molesting the victim, nude photos of the victim, and a text conversation where Sikes suggested using Snapchat to avoid detection.
“Both of these pedophiles exploited vulnerable girls in troubled situations,” said Kaminar. “This office places great emphasis on the victims’ well-being, especially when faced with re-traumatizing them through a public trial. Riley and Sikes pleading guilty means that the victims were not forced to re-live their abuse in front of total strangers. While we know the people of Lamar County prefer more permanent ways of dealing with child molesters, those punishments have not yet been authorized by the Texas Legislature.”
“The outstanding work by the Lamar County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Rangers, and the multi-disciplinary team at the Children’s Advocacy Center resulted in two predators behind bars, where they belong,” said Lamar County District Attorney Nick Stallings. “The vigilance of the detention officers in our jail was especially commendable. They spotted and reported a predator hiding in their midst. Lamar County is a better place with them and a better place without Sikes and Riley.”
Source: Press Release
