"Jane Doe" - 5 yo - Wichita KS

The jury in the trial of a couple charged with sexually abusing a
young girl has found both people guilty. Reggie Stafford and the girl's
mother were found guilty of two counts of rape and one count of
aggravated criminal sodomy. The mother was also found guilty of
aggravated child endangerment. Both were found not guilty of one count
of aggravated criminal sodomy.
The mother, 48, and
Stafford, 51, decided not to present evidence in their defense as their
trial resumed this morning. Both face multiple life sentences if
convicted under a 2006 statute known as Jessica's Law.
Prosecutors
say the mother sold the girl, now 7, for sexual favors to Stafford for
money, which she spent on whiskey and cigarettes. The alleged abuse
happened when the girl was 5.

A man and woman in Wichita have been
convicted of sexual assault in what prosecutors called the prostitution
of the woman's 5-year-old daughter.
A jury in Sedgwick County District Court deliberated about three hours
Friday before finding both adults guilty of two counts of rape and one
count of sodomy. The mother was also convicted of aggravated child
endangerment.
Prosecutors said the 48-year-old mother allowed her male acquaintance, 51-year-old Reggie
Stafford, to abuse her daughter in exchange for money for alcohol and
cigarettes. Neither adult presented evidence in their defense before
the case went to the jury.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 1.

A Wichita woman and her friend face life in prison after being
convicted of prostituting her young daughter so he could rape and
sodomize her.
A jury Friday afternoon found the girl's 48-year-old mother and her
friend Reggie Stafford, 51, guilty on two counts of rape and one count
of aggravated criminal sodomy.
The mother was convicted of
aiding and abetting the sex crimes, which were based on the girl's age.
She was between 5 and 6 at the time of the attacks.
Jurors also found her guilty of aggravated child endangerment.
"She served (the child) up to this man," Deputy District Attorney Marc
Bennett told the jury in his closing arguments Friday morning.
The mother is not being named to avoid identifying the girl.
The jury didn't begin deliberating until after lunch, reaching its verdict
within three hours. Jurors declined to talk about the case afterward.
The couple face 25 years to life in prison under Jessica's Law, which the
state Legislature passed in 2006 to toughen laws against child sexual
abuse.
Sedgwick County District Judge Greg Waller set sentencing for Oct. 1.
Jurors found the couple not guilty on one count of aggravated criminal sodomy.
"The victim being able to have the strength to take the stand and tell her
story was the most important thing," said Assistant District Attorney
Shannon Wilson, who questioned the girl, now 7, in court.
"She did an amazing job.''
The girl was 6 when she told an older brother that her mother took her to
Stafford's house so he could have sex with her. It was nearly a year
later before she could tell authorities about her ordeal.
The couple's defense portrayed the girl's story as a made-up attempt to
escape a poor home environment where she didn't have proper clothing or
food, slept on the couch and lived in a filthy house in Planeview.
Bennett said in closing arguments that it was improbable a girl of that age could make up such a sophisticated ploy.
"She was extremely compelling, and the jury found her very credible," Bennett said after the verdict.
Bennett also pointed out that the girl first told her brothers about the abuse
and didn't tell authorities until she had been in foster care for
months.
It was not a relative, but a man living in the house who pushed the girl's abuse into the open.
Ruben Diaz testified that he overheard the brothers talking about the mother
selling the girl to a friend. Diaz told his boss, Bob Barnes, who
notified authorities in July 2007.
Although she had confided in her brothers, the girl denied there was any abuse when
detective William Riddle and social worker Melissa Gardner first talked
to her on July 10, 2007. Gardner originally marked the case
"unsubstantiated."
The girl didn't begin to talk about the
abuse until that October. Then she told only her foster mother, Joyce
White Dechant, that she someone had "bothered" and "touched" her.
A month later, the girl gave Riddle and Gardner more details about being
forced to have sex with Stafford at her mother's urging. The girl said
Stafford had sex with her as many as eight times and would pay her
mother $6.
The girl testified her mother would use the money to buy "whiskey and cigarettes."
"It was incredibly difficult for her to tell her story," Wilson said.
The jurors didn't hear the stories of the girl's sisters.
Two older sisters, now in their 20s, told authorities that their mother had
also provided them to Stafford for sex when they were pre-teens and
teenagers. In January, Waller ruled the sisters' testimony inadmissible
at trial.