On the witness stand, James Weems Jr. reflected about his life before he was a criminal defendant.

His third wife, Shanteari, ran a successful business in Owings Mills: Lil Kidz Kastle Daycare Center. Meanwhile, he volunteered as the van driver and worked in executive protection, providing security for celebrities, royalty and high net worth individuals.

Weems said he and his wife traveled four to five times per year. They shopped. And they dined at nice restaurants.

“Life was good,” Weems testified on Thursday in the Baltimore County Courts Building. “It was fine.”

No one, he said, had ever accused him of having inappropriate contact with a child. But that changed on July 18, 2022, when Baltimore County Police seized his cellphone as part of an investigation into sexual abuse.

Testifying at his trial in Baltimore County Circuit Court on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, rape and displaying obscene matter to a child, Weems acknowledged that he watched pornography on his phone in the van while waiting to pick up children from various elementary schools. But he said he took precautions — and he denied all allegations that he sexually abused a 10-year-old girl.

“No,” Weems responded to questions from his lead attorney, Thomas Pavlinic, about whether he had forced the girl to perform oral sex in the van or at the day care. “Not at all.”

Weems, 59, of Towson, told the jury that he served in the Marine Corps, Maryland Army National Guard and Baltimore Police Department. He medically retired from the force after a car crash while he was on duty, but stayed on until 2008 as a contractor.

When his youngest son was between 9 months and 1 year old, Weems testified, he brought him to Lil Kidz Kastle Daycare Center. That’s how he met Shanteari, the woman who would become his third wife, and the two of them married in 2017.

Before they were in a relationship, Weems testified, he did not watch porn. But he said he started viewing it every day.

“Miss Weems needed pornography to, I guess, engage in sex,” he testified. “It became kind of addictive.”

So when he was waiting to pick up students in the afternoon from places including Lyons Mill, Deer Park and Woodholme elementary schools, Weems said, he would pull up porn to pass the time. But he said he took precautions — including leaning over in the driver’s seat and positioning his phone away from them.

If the children spotted a plane, Weems testified, he would pull up FlightAware on his phone and give it to them. Because of the color scheme, they were particularly enamored with Southwest Airlines.

He disputed that he provided special attention to the girl and denied sexually abusing her in the van and at the day care. Now 12, she testified against him earlier in the trial.

On cross-examination, Deputy State’s Attorney Lisa Dever said to Weems, “Let’s talk about your porn addiction.”

Weems testified that he did not use his work laptop to look at porn.

When Dever asked Weems whether he mostly watched porn on his phone while he was in a van with children, he replied, “Probably, yes.”

“So your addiction was when you were with children?” Dever asked.

“No,” Weems responded.

Circuit Judge Michael J. Finifter on Friday is set to instruct the jury on the law, and then both sides will deliver their closing arguments.

Later, Weems acknowledged that it was possible that the girl could have leaned over his shoulder and saw the sexually explicit material. He also suggested that the children could have pulled up videos on his phone unbeknownst to him.

“They can hide it,” Weems testified. “Kids sometimes hide things.”

After the police seized his phone, Weems said, he went to the dry cleaners, picked up his laptop from the day care and headed to work.

His wife, he said, was confused.

“We spoke,” he testified. “But she was still upset.”

The jury, though, did not hear about what unfolded just a few days later.

Shanteari Weems drove from Baltimore County to Washington, D.C., on July 21, 2022, confronted her husband inside his hotel room at what was then called the Mandarin Oriental and shot him two times.

She later pleaded guilty in D.C. Superior Court to aggravated assault and carrying a pistol without a license and was sentenced to four years in prison — plus two years’ supervised release. She’s set to be released on Dec. 17, 2025, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Toward the end of his testimony, James Weems reiterated that he does not deny watching porn in the van.

But in retrospect, he testified, that behavior was not appropriate.