MOUNT VERNON — A Knox County judge on Friday convicted Gary “Tom” Keesee Jr., a former leader at Faith Life Church in New Albany, on all 27 felony counts against him, finding that he sexually abused four girls in a case prosecutors said stretched from 2002 to 2016.
Knox County Common Pleas Judge Richard Wetzel found Keesee, 38, guilty of 11 counts of rape of a child under the age of 13, 11 counts of gross sexual imposition and five counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor. The verdict, in State of Ohio v. Gary Thomas Keesee Jr., Case No. 25CR04-0067, followed a four-day bench trial in October in which Keesee had waived his right to a jury and put his fate in the judge’s hands alone.
The Licking County Prosecutor’s Office, which prosecuted the case as a special prosecutor, said Keesee sexually assaulted four girls who ranged in age from 6 to 15 years old between 2002 and 2016. Most of the victims testified at trial. Prosecutors argued Keesee used his position and charisma as a youth leader to get access to the girls. Witnesses who attended Faith Life Church testified that Keesee had admitted to sexually assaulting one of the victims, and Keesee’s siblings testified that their parents had instructed them not to leave him alone with minors at the family home or at the church.
Keesee pleaded not guilty and denied the allegations, and he did not testify in his own defense. His attorney, Sam Shamansky, argued the women coordinated a smear campaign against Keesee and the church. In closing arguments on Oct. 6, Licking County Prosecutor Jenny Wells told the judge the women’s testimony was corroborated and sufficient to convict. “The cover was pulled, and behind that curtain was the defendant – a serial child rapist, whose acts were exposed when these victims came forward and told their stories of abuse,” Wells said.
Keesee’s parents, church founders Gary and Drenda Keesee, and his wife, Alexis, attended Friday’s hearing in Mount Vernon.
Wetzel continued Keesee’s bond and allowed him to remain free after the verdict was read. Keesee has surrendered his passport as a condition of his bond. He will be formally sentenced at a later date. Under Ohio law, each rape conviction for a victim under the age of 13 carries a mandatory indefinite prison term ending in life.
The case began in February 2025, when the Licking County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation at the request of the Knox County Sheriff’s Office. The Knox County agency recused itself because Drenda Keesee is a Knox County commissioner who helps oversee the sheriff’s budget, and Ohio’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation also stepped aside over a conflict. Detectives arrested Keesee at his Johnstown home on April 18, 2025, on a warrant charging two counts of first-degree rape, according to the Licking County Sheriff’s Office.
A Knox County grand jury indicted Keesee on 27 counts on April 21, 2025. A superseding indictment in May 2025 added a fourth victim and raised the total to 32 counts. During the trial, Wetzel dismissed five of those counts — two rape counts and three gross sexual imposition counts tied to the fourth accuser — after she became too distraught to finish testifying, leaving the 27 counts on which Keesee was convicted Friday.
Keesee was a youth leader and the chief media officer at Faith Life Church before resigning in August 2024. His parents founded the New Albany church in 1994 and continue to lead it. Prosecutors have said investigators found no evidence that any of the offenses occurred at the church. After Keesee’s arrest, the church said the alleged conduct “in no way involved Faith Life Church” and that it had responded in accordance with the information available to it.
