A man in West Virginia who was accused of getting his 11-year-old daughter pregnant and later forcing her into abortion escapes jail time. He gets five years of probation instead.
Michael Joe Adkins was sentenced to a five-year probation period as well as 50 years of supervision as part of a plea deal. The Herald Dispatch reports that two years ago, he entered a Kennedy plea between the prosecution and defense. This allowed Cabell County to make a conviction without having him admit his guilt or explain his role in the crime.
Part of the deal also requires Adkins to undergo therapy and register as a sex offender.
The man's defense lawyer, Connor Robertson, argued against the 50-year supervision, but Judge Paul T. Farrell insisted on the maximum years allowed by the statute.
"I'm just going to be blunt, I hope you screw up during those 50 years so I can send you to prison... And I'm hoping that's the case, because you should go to prison for what you did," said Judge Farrell.
According to Daily Mail, Adkins was accused of incest after keeping an 11-year-old girl at his house in Ona for four months from October 2010 to February 2011, ultimately causing her to get pregnant. The girl was reportedly forced into abortion in March.
Now 18 years old, a family member and representative told the court that the girl continues to "live in fear" and could not even go to the bathroom without thinking that Adkins is hiding in a corner, waiting for her.
"With the traumatic experience she has gone through, the loss she has suffered with her child, she doesn't know the physical or psychological impact it's going to cause the rest of her life in any relationships or having a family of her own," the representative said.
Adkins' now estranged wife received 18 months of probation and 10 years of supervision after pleading guilty to child neglect in 2015.
