Anthony Elliott, 75, of Lima, was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison after pleading guilty in May to a single count of rape.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A 75-year-old Lima man who admitted through his guilty plea earlier this year that he sexually assaulted a young girl nearly 10 years ago was sentenced Thursday to seven years in prison.
The sentence was mostly pre-determined after Anthony Elliott entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors. Elliott, 75, was indicted in December on two first-degree felony counts of rape, a third-degree felony charge of gross sexual imposition and a misdemeanor charge of public indecency.
A joint agreement executed in May between the state and Elliott’s attorney removed language in the original indictment that the victim was under the age of 10. As part of the plea deal, all remaining counts were dismissed in exchange for Elliott’s guilty plea to a single rape charge. The recommendation called for a seven-year minimum prison sentence for Elliott.
Chief Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Thines said during Thursday’s sentencing hearing that “any case involving young victims can be tough to resolve,” adding that prosecutors must walk a “fine line between punishing offenders versus re-victimizing” young people. In Elliott’s case, Thines said, the victim “held the defendant in high regard and was reluctant to testify against him at trial.”
The prosecutor credited defense attorney Anthony Van Noy with helping craft a resolution that avoided that scenario.
According to the indictment, the acts leading to the rape charges allegedly took place from November 2014 to November 2016, when the victim was as young as 6 years of age, while the gross sexual imposition charges stem from acts that allegedly occurred between November 2018 and Nov. 2, 2020.
In a letter read to the court by a representative of Crime Victim Services during Thursday’s hearing, the victim said, “My grades are bad; my mental health is poor. I have suicidal thoughts, and I am in counseling. But if you (the CVS case worker) are reading this aloud in court, tell (Elliott) this: ‘I still have strong feelings for you, but you decided to do some gross things to me.’”
Van Noy told the court that his client “realized what was happening when he decided in the best interest of all that he needed to enter a plea” in the case.
Elliott was labeled a Tier III sex offender and following his release from prison will be required to register with local authorities every 90 days for the rest of his life.
