Having sex with a 13-year-old girl will garner a six-year prison sentence for a 19-year-old Fort Wayne man, under the terms of a plea agreement entered Monday in Allen Superior Court.
Joseph S. Sands, of the 1600 block of Tennessee Avenue, pleaded guilty to a charge of child molesting, a Class B felony.
Sands also pleaded guilty to criminal recklessness with a weapon in a separate case.
If Allen Superior Judge John Surbeck accepts the plea agreement, Sands will be sentenced to six years in prison on the child molesting charge, plus an additional year on the charge of criminal recklessness. The prison sentences will be served one after another, according to court documents, for a total of seven years.
Prosecutors charged Sands with the crimes in June after he admitted to having sex with the 13-year-old girl who had run away from home.
In April, police found the girl at Sands’ apartment and her mother obtained a protective order against Sands. In May, the teen told police she was dating Sands, according to court documents.
