Man pleads guilty to sexual battery

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A man charged with sexually assaulting an alcohol-impaired woman after she fell asleep at a Goshen Township house party has pleaded guilty to a single count of sexual battery.

Jason K. King, 24, of 6th Street, Salem, entered his guilty plea Monday before Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, who will sentence him at 9 a.m. Nov. 25.

In the plea agreement, the prosecution dropped another count of sexual battery and two counts of rape in the July 4, 2006, incident, in which the victim told police she found King on top of her when she awakened.

The prosecution is recommending a five-year prison term, which is the maximum sentence for the third-degree-felony sexual battery charge, and said it will oppose early judicial release.

King, who remains free on bond pending sentencing, will be on parole for five years after prison and will have to register quarterly with the sheriff as a sex offender as long as he lives.

James MacDonald, assistant county prosecutor, said he made the plea agreement because witnesses have moved to California and Australia and because he wanted to spare the victim the ordeal of testifying in a trial. The victim was in agreement with the plea deal, he added.