KINGWOOD — A plea bargain to allow a convicted sex offender to do his time on home confinement was placed on hold Tuesday until the judge receives a pre-sentence report.
Donald Carl Stout, 70, of Bruceton Mills, entered an Alford or Kennedy Plea in August to failure to register as a sex offender. Tuesday he was to go on trial for sexual assault, sexual abuse and two counts of child abuse resulting in injury in Preston Circuit Court. Instead, he entered another Alford/Kennedy Plea, this time to one count of sexual abuse, with the other three charges in that indictment to be dropped.
The proposed plea specifies that Shrout would serve his time on home confinement and could not have contact with any minor.
Preston Circuit Judge Steve Shaffer deferred accepting the plea, saying he wants to see the probation office’s pre-sentence investigation first. The report was ordered after the failure to register plea. Sentencing for that crime will be Sept. 30.
Preston Prosecutor Melvin C. Snyder III, who previously said the case is one of the most disturbing he ever presented to a grand jury, said Tuesday that the plea deal was offered because the child victim who is the primary witness would be further traumatized by having to relive the attack by testifying about it.
“I don’t think this is a wonderful plea … this is our only real option so that she doesn’t get traumatized again,” the prosecutor said. The victim’s father was in court Tuesday and told the judge he didn’t totally go along with the plea agreement. “But I don’t want to set my daughter back,” the father said, noting the child only recently stopped having nightmares and sleep walking.
“If there were a way she could testify in another room or something, she doesn’t want to see him,” the man said, looking at Stout.
“I don’t agree with it, and that’s about all I can say right now,” said the investigating officer, Preston Sheriff’s Deputy Lt. G.A. Sinclair.
Snyder said that at trial the state would have shown that two minor children were left alone with Stout by their mother. The minors said Stout crushed some blue pills, snorted them and gave some to the children. Sinclair found blue pills at Stout’s home that would have had such an affect, Snyder said.
When the mother returned, she found, “both of these kids were very groggy and out of it,” and took them to the emergency room. They remained in the hospital several days, and a sexual assault examination found visual evidence of an assault, Snyder said.
Material recovered from the child was sent to the State Police Crime Lab, which did not return the results until last week — two years after the alleged assault — Snyder said. It showed Stout’s DNA was on one of the children, he said.
The plea agreement also calls for Stout not to pay any home confinement fees the first year. Defense attorney Lisa Hyre said his only income prior to his arrest was $700 per month disability Social Security.
He would also receive credit for time served since his arrest in July 2017.
If convicted at trial of sexual abuse, Stout would face 10-20 years in prison and fines.
An Alford or Kennedy Plea is not an admission of guilt but an admission that there might be enough evidence to convince a jury to find a defendant guilty.
