A 43-year-old Salisbury man who was already a convicted sex offender was sentenced to 25-35 years behind bars in August following an investigation by Rowan County Sheriff’s Office that resulted in a guilty plea to new charges.

Jonathan Edward Honeycutt refused to give investigators a statement during the investigation, but plead guilty to seven separate counts of various child sex assault offenses, and on Aug. 26, 2022, he was sentenced to 25-35 years.

In October 2019, deputies began an investigation into a report that Honeycutt had sexually molested two children in southern Rowan County. He was previously convicted of indecent liberties with a child and indecent exposure. Based on evidence obtained in the case, combined with the victims’ statements, RCSO detectives were able to charge Honeycutt with the new offenses which included taking indecent liberties with a child and first-degree statutory sex offense with a child. Honeycutt’s victims were only 5 and 6 at the time the offenses occurred.

Honeycutt will be 68 if released after 25 years.

In November 2012, Honeycutt was arrested by the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office for multiple sex offender registration violations. The department began an investigation after receiving information that Honeycutt was possibly staying at his girlfriend’s house and not at his registered address. This investigation led to the discovery that Honeycutt was active on a social media website that is banned against use for sex offenders (Facebook).

Also, it was confirmed that Honeycutt, on two different occasions, had been on the property of one of the local elementary schools, something else he was not allowed to do. The investigation found no evidence that he approached any children while on the property.  He was arrested and charged with failure to notify of an address change by a sex offender, being on a banned social media website by a sex offender (Facebook) and two counts of being on school property by a sex offender.