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Garrettsville man sentenced to 10 years in prison for having sex with girl throughout last summer
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
David E. White of Garrettsville will spend the next 10 years in prison for having sex with a 13-year-old Garrettsville runaway at a Southington Township campground throughout last summer.
White, 58, of Park Avenue and Maple Street, pleaded guilty in March in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court to five counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor.
Prosecutors said he and the girl had consensual sex numerous times in the camper where they were staying for 71 days while authorities in Portage County continually looked for the girl and White denied that he knew where she was, said Gabe Wildman, assistant Trumbull County prosecutor.
“You took advantage of a young lady that has been abused all her life probably more than she had been ever before,” Judge Ronald Rice said during White’s sentencing hearing.
The girl was scheduled to testify at White’s trial, but she ran away from her adoptive mother’s house in Garrettsville and could not be found. The trial went on without her. She still has not been found and is believed to be somewhere in Cuyahoga County, Wildman said.
It’s illegal for an adult to have sex with a 13-year-old because they are not old enough to consent to sex, Wildman said. If the girl were one year younger, White could have been sentenced to life in prison, he noted.
“He could have chosen to help her, but he took advantage of her and had sex with her repeatedly over 71 days,” Wildman said.
Niles police officers ultimately stopped the offenses from continuing by looking deeper while conducting a traffic stop last August. White and the girl were in the car together, and the pair gave answers that didn’t add up, Wildman said.
White later pleaded guilty to 10 counts of interference with custody, all first-degree misdemeanors, in Portage County Municipal Court and was sentenced to 87 days in jail, the Kent-Ravenna Record Courier reported.
Wildman said the charges related to attempts by authorities to locate the girl and White telling them he didn’t know where the girl was.