St. C. man convicted of rape
By KATIE MATZ, Times Leader Staff WriterA BELMONT County jury found a St. Clairsville man accused of the rape and molestation of a 14-year-old girl guilty Thursday afternoon.
The defendant appeared in the Common Pleas Court of Judge John M. Solovan II on Tuesday and Wednesday, for one count of rape, three counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of sexual battery. Tom J. Garrett, 40, was initially charged with a total of seven counts but was found guilty on five.
He will now face up to 30 years in prison, according to Belmont County Prosecutor Chris Berhalter, and is currently awaiting his sentencing.
Charges were brought against Garrett by the young victim who told the jury that Garrett had been molesting her since she was 4 or 5 years old.
After hearing the victim testify on Tuesday, a video interview was shown to the jury on Wednesday, with a confession from Garrett.
The video interview, which was conducted by Belmont County Sheriff's Department Detective Ryan Allar, gave the jury a detailed description of both the victim's statement as well as Garrett's confession of inappropriately touching, penetrating and having oral sex with the victim, all beginning when she was around the age of 5.
The victim's statement, which was read by Allar in the video, said: "When I was 4 or 5, (Garrett) started touching me. He always thought I was asleep - all he did was touch me. Then, when I was 10 or 11, things got worse."
The victim's statement also concluded that Garrett began molesting her once a week, then she said it would be three or four times a week, but eventually decreased to once a month when she reached puberty.
A popular Website played a role in this case, as the victim had opened up to a friend on MySpace about the sex abuse, according to Allar.
However, Berhalter said it was because of the victim's bravery to come forward that really played a role in this case.
"We were only able to stop (Garrett) because of the courage of this young victim and the outstanding work done by Detective Allar," he said.
Matz may be reached at kmatz@timesleaderonline.com
