In Texas, many are confused about the sentence that was just handed down to a repeat sex offender. An 80-year-old man named William Ira Wiltse recently plead guilty to the four different child sex crimes he was charged with. Even so, the man only received 20 days in jail for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old girl back in 2013.
The sentence was part of a plea deal that allowed the man to serve a light prison sentence in exchange for a 10-year probation period. If he completes the probation without any further incidents, his child sex crimes will be expunged from his record.
This extremely light sentence is highly unusual for a crime of nature wise was convicted of. Most convicted child molesters receive upwards of 30 years in prison. Evidently, the judge presiding over his case did not want to put Wiltse in jail for the rest of his life. Hence, the relatively lenient sentence has many wondering whether justice was truly done in this case. The family of the girl that was molested by Wiltse back in 2013 did not want to have to make her experience the trauma of testifying in court. By doing this, the family hoped to deprive Wiltse of the media fame that comes with a high-profile child molestation case. In addition to the prison and probation time, Wiltse will have to pay a $2000 fine and refrain from interacting with anyone under the age of 18 unless with written permission.
