Area man sentenced in child-rape case

LISBON -- A Salem-area man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for raping and molesting a 4-year-old girl.
Joshua Baird, 27, of Salem-Unity Road, Salem, was sentenced Monday by Judge C. Ashley Pike of Columbiana County Common Pleas Court.
Afterwards, Baird was returned to the Mahoning County jail, where he awaits another sex charge involving a child.
In Columbiana County, Baird was charged with rape, for which Judge Pike sentenced him to eight years, and gross sexual imposition, three years. Judge Pike gave Baird the sentence recommended by prosecutors in exchange for his guilty plea, entered in June.
The maximum sentences are 10 years for the rape and five years for gross sexual imposition.
Baird raped and molested the girl, whom he knew, from January 2002 through October 2002.
In Mahoning County, Baird is charged with raping a 2-year-old Boardman girl during a Thanksgiving get-together at a Beaver Township home.
Baird was a friend to the get-together's hosts.
The Mahoning County charge bears a maximum life sentence because of the circumstances of the crime.