Man who lived in 15-year-old girl's bedroom for 3 weeks pleads to lesser charges
The man who lived in a 15-year-old girl's basement bedroom for three weeks without her family knowing pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of gross sexual imposition and a child pornography charge, both low-level felonies.
Jaret Wright's plea in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court came two days before Judge Jennifer Branch was set to decide whether he was guilty of charges including three counts of rape.
Prosecutors said Wright used physical and psychological force to compel the girl to have sex.
Wright, 21, chose to have a non-jury trial, which took place over three days earlier this month. According to testimony, Wright and the girl had sex almost daily.
In the days leading up to Branch's decision, prosecutors and Wright's attorneys with the public defender's office, James Moore and Amy Detisch, negotiated a plea deal that likely means Wright will be sentenced to time served and probation.
Sentencing is set for June 23. Wright, who was arrested in March 2021, has been held at the Hamilton County Justice Center for 438 days.
The charges he pleaded to are punishable by a maximum of 5½ years in prison. But Branch said because the charges are low-level felonies, under state law a prison term is not mandatory.
Branch on Wednesday released Wright on a bond that doesn't require him to post any money. She imposed several conditions, including:
24-hour house arrest
Wright will be monitored electronically
The teenage victim and her family will be alerted if he leaves the home
He is not allowed to have any contact with the girl
"No calling, texting, Snapchatting," Branch told him.
Wright is from Barberton, which is near Akron. But he will stay locally with a friend and isn't allowed to leave the county.
According to trial testimony, Wright and the girl met in late 2020 on Snapchat. In February 2021, he took a bus to Cincinnati and lived with the girl in the basement bedroom of her College Hill house between February and March 2021. Her mother and siblings didn't know.
When he was arrested on March 13, 2021, he was hiding under the girl's bed, his arms wrapped around the box spring's frame, according to testimony.
Prosecutors made errors in handling the case. They inadvertently indicted Wright under a rape law that involves giving drugs or intoxicants to an alleged victim. There was no evidence of that.
Prosecutors also failed to indict Wright – within the required time frame – on a lesser charge, unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, which Branch said he “confessed to.” Branch said prosecutors proved during the trial that he was guilty of that.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Jaret Wright pleads to lesser charges in sex case involving teen girl
