The father of a 12-year-old girl who died in a Guthrie Center house fire in May of 2017 has been sentenced to 75 years in prison for sexual assault. On Monday, a judge in Greene County District Court handed down the punishment to 47-year-old James Hubert Exline, Jr. with the maximum, 50 years, for a second-degree sexual abuse charge, a class B felony, and 25 years for third-degree sexual abuse, a class C felony. The sentences are to run consecutively. Exline must serve 85 percent of this sentence before he will be eligible for parole. Exline was found guilty of having abused Melanie “Paige” Exline from June of 2016 to April of 2017. Paige and her cousin, 16-year-old Shakiah Cockerham, died in the May 15, 2017 arson fire that also injured the girls’ grandmother and uncle. Paige’s stepbrother, 27-year-old Patrick Ryan Thompson, was arrested in connection to the fire and charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of attempted murder and first degree arson. His trial has been scheduled for Sept. 17, 2018.
