Ivory sent to prison after criminal sexual conduct verdict
Demetrius Ivory, 45, will serve a minimum of 25-45 years in prison after a St. Joseph County Circuit Court jury returned guilty verdicts on 10 counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. The three girl victims were ages 5 and 3 when the assaults took place in 2018 in Burr Oak.
Visiting retired Hillsdale County Circuit Court Judge Mike Smith imposed the sentence Friday in Centreville. He called Ivory "one of the more reprehensible people" he had ever encountered.
He identified Ivory as a pedophile who did not rape these girls once, "but every time you were alone with them, over and over."
"Twenty-five years is not enough. I hope it is for the rest of your life," Smith said.
As Ivory shook his head, "no," the judge told him, "you are clearly guilty."
The 12-member jury deliberated for just over two hours after a two-day trial before delivering the guilty verdicts.
Jurors convicted Ivory of sexually assaulting three granddaughters of his girlfriend in her Burr Oak home between September and November of 2018.
Now, ages nine and seven, the three victims detailed the assaults with often short answers to what happened.
The grandmother usually left the visiting three girls with Ivory while she went to do laundry. The incidents occurred in the bedroom, the girls testified.
The first girl to report the attack said she told her grandmother what Ivory did to her, but the grandmother did not believe her and accused her of making up the story.
Appearing by Zoom, the parents of one girl said the crimes destroyed the family and their marriage.
The victim's impact spokesperson read letters from the other two girls questioned by another grandmother. One talked of suicide. The other wanted Ivory sent to prison for life "so he can't do this to anyone else."
Ivory grew up as a gang member in Chicago. His record was filled with assaultive behavior.
He was employed in several jobs, his last from 2019 to last October, working at the Clemens pork plant in Coldwater.
Van Buren County Prosecuting Attorney Susan Zuiderveen handled the state's case because St. Joseph County Prosecutor David Marvin was involved in the case before his election.
Smith was asked to preside after the death of St. Joseph County Circuit Judge Paul Stutesman's father. COVID-19 closures delayed the trial for two years and Stutesman did not want a further delay.
This article originally appeared on Sturgis Journal: Ivory sent to prison after criminal sexual conduct verdict
