Man gets 25 years for sexually abusing daughter

April 13, 2009|By RICHARD F. BELISLE

MARTINSBURG, W.Va.-- A 36-year-old Berkeley County man indicted in February on 191 charges of sexually abusing his minor daughter pleaded guilty in Berkeley County Circuit Court Monday. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

23rd Judicial Circuit Judge Gray Silver III told the defendant, whose name is not being published to protect the victim's identity, "this is the most heinous crime against one's own daughter."

Silver said he would not have approved the plea bargain had the victim and her family not wanted it.

"The court understands that the family is seeking finality," he said.

The family agreed to the plea bargain to save the victim from having to testify in a jury trial.

Now 18, she was abused from the time she was 12 until she was 17. The abuse occurred two to three times a month, according to testimony.

The defendant, who will be eligible for parole in 12 1/2 years, showed no emotion and looked away from his daughter and ex-wife as they told of incidents during the five years of abuse. He wore a beard, long ponytail and an orange jail uniform as he entered court with shackled hands and feet.Â

The victim, who stepped forward with a prepared statement, was too overcome with emotion to read it. Her mother read it for her.

"Why? What was going through your head? You were supposed to be my father," the mother read. "I felt that at 12 years old, I should never be afraid of my father. I loved you."

She said that after what he had done to her, she "could no longer be a kid." She said she eventually had to "come clean" and tell someone.

She told her mother and her mother notified the authorities, said Sherman L. Lambert Sr., the defendant's attorney, who helped draft the plea bargain.

The defendant's ex-wife, in her prepared remarks, said he should think "every day you sit in your cell" about what he had done to a daughter who adored him and looked up to him.

"I trusted you with our children. How could you do this? How could you hurt her so badly? You took away her childhood. She won't be able to forget this for the rest of her life. Pray that God forgives you because I never will," the mother read.

Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Jean Games-Neely said "this child was severely harmed" by the abuse.Â

The victim has two younger sisters, neither of whom were abused, Lambert said.

According to the plea arrangement, the defendant was allowed to plea to five counts of sexual abuse, each of which carries a prison term of one to five years. He was ordered to begin serving his sentence immediately.

He must also serve 15 years of supervised probation and on Monday was ordered to sign up as a sex offender, a mark he will carry for the rest of his life, the judge said.

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