HUNTINGTON,Indiana – Three separate sentences were handed down on Monday for three separate defendants charged with sexual misconduct in the Huntington County Circuit Court.
Riley Smith, 20, Marion, was sentenced to two-and-a-half years, six months suspended, for sexual battery after he pleaded guilty of forcibly touching a 15-year-old female victim on top of her clothing without her consent in October 2015. The State of Indiana agreed to drop two other counts of sexual misconduct in exchange for his plea.
Michael Seelig, 18, Huntington, was sentenced to a total of seven years Monday after pleading guilty of child solicitation and disseminating of matter harmful to minors. According to the plea agreement, Seelig showed inappropriate pictures to a 10-year-old boy and then asked the boy to touch him inappropriately in August 2015. Seelig received five years on the solicitation charge, with three years suspended to probation, and two years probation on the dissemination charge. The judge issued a no-contact order with the victim and required Seelig to complete a Family Services Society program.
Zachary Jones, 28, Huntington, was sentenced to a total of five years Monday after pleading guilty on child solicitation, possession of child pornography and dissemination of matter harmful to minors charges. According to the plea agreement, Jones sent inappropriate videos to a 14-year-old girl on Facebook, asked the victim to send inappropriate back and asked her to met him for sex. The victim’s mother called her daughter “scared” and “scarred,” calling the incident a “parent’s worst nightmare.” Jones apologized to the mother saying that he want to prove he is “not a monster.”