Prince George’s County man gets 165 years for child sex crimes

A Prince George’s County judge sent Cleophus Canton to prison for 165 years, a sentence that all but guarantees the 60-year-old will die behind bars after a case that exposed how child sexual abuse can stay hidden for years inside a family circle in Upper Marlboro.

Canton was sentenced Thursday, May 7, in Prince George’s County Circuit Court after a January 2026 conviction on nine counts, including second-degree child abuse, rape and sex offenses. Prosecutors said the abuse stretched from the late 1990s through 2008 and involved at least four victims, including Canton’s biological daughter and the daughters and nieces of women he had been involved with.

The courtroom outcome did not erase the damage described by survivors. Brittany Simms said it took 25 years to reach justice, and she described speaking out as a way of defending the child she once was. Shawntia Simms said she and Brittany told adults about the abuse when they were 13, but nothing changed and Canton stayed around the family. Keisha Spencer said the sentence still did not feel like enough, a reminder that decades-old abuse can leave trauma that no prison term can fully answer.

The case also raised hard questions about warning signs and failed intervention. WUSA9 reported that the county’s state’s attorney’s office said Canton sexually abused four girls. Investigators and advocates have said there may be additional victims who have not yet come forward, a possibility that makes the case bigger than one defendant and one sentencing. When abuse is embedded in a household or family network, disclosures can be delayed for years, and silence can give offenders more time to continue.

Canton’s presence in the local go-go music scene may also have helped him keep a foothold in the community, making the allegations harder to surface for years. State’s Attorney Tara Jackson said Canton has one pending case and that investigators believe there could be more victims. She also said child sexual abuse cases will continue to be aggressively prosecuted, underscoring that prosecutors see this case as part of a broader effort to pull hidden abuse into the open.

Maryland’s Child Victims Act, which took effect in October 2023 and eliminated the civil statute of limitations for childhood sexual abuse claims, gives survivors more room to pursue accountability long after the abuse ends. The Maryland Supreme Court upheld the law in February 2025, leaving open another path for victims who were not ready, or not believed, when the abuse first came to light.