Conley
A Cass County man has agreed to serve 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting a former Columbus girl when she was only 7 years old.
A plea agreement was reached Thursday in Bartholomew Circuit Court in the case of Travis D. Conley, 27, of Galveston, Indiana.
If convicted of the original Level 1 felony charge of child molesting, Conley could have been sentenced to up to 40 years in prison, as well as ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.
But when the defendant agreed Thursday to plead guilty to the lesser charge of child seduction as a Level 2 felony, chief deputy prosecutor Kimberly Sexton-Yeager agreed to limit the sentence to 15 years. Sexton-Yeager also agreed to drop all other charges against Conley related to the case.
During Thursday’s hearing, Conley’s voice was barely audible as he gave crisp, short answers to questions asked by both the judge and Sexton-Yeager. With his hands folded in front of him, Conley kept his gaze down and avoided eye contact with others in the courtroom.
It will be up to Judge Kelly Benjamin to determine whether she’ll accept the plea agreement or whether part of the 15 years should be suspended. Sentencing is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 29.
The case against Conley was laid out in a probable cause affidavit filed in May 2022 by Columbus detectives.
On Aug. 19, 2021, a report of child abuse or neglect was made to state officials by a sheriff’s deputy in Crawford County, located west of Louisville, Kentucky.
The deputy informed the Indiana Department of Child Services that a 7-year-old girl claimed an adult male had forced her into submitting to sexual acts while she was living with her guardian in Columbus, the affidavit states.
As a result of the deputy’s report, the child was interviewed at the Comfort House Child Advocacy Center in Corydon. After claiming that she was first touched inappropriately, the girl said Conley performed more deviant acts after ordering her to go into the bathroom, the affidavit states. The guardian and the little girl lived in Columbus no more than five months before they moved out, court documents state.
After the guardian confirmed Conley has stayed several weeks at the home, detectives interviewed Conley, who initially denied having any sexual contact with the little girl, the affidavit states. But during further questioning, the defendant changed his story to claim that that the 7-year-old tried to force herself on him, the affidavit states.
A number of other inconsistencies were found in Conley’s version of events, detectives wrote in the court documents.
The probable cause affidavit was filed on March 9, 2022 – the same day Benjamin issued a no contact order in the case. But when officers in Knox County attempted to arrest Conley a month earlier, the residence were he was staying near Vincennes was discovered to be empty.
It wasn’t until last February that local investigators discovered Conley had been ordered to serve nearly two years in prison by a Cass County judge for failing to register as a sex or violent offender.
A Switzerland County judge had ordered Conley to do so for a period of 10 years after he was found guilty of child solicitation on Jan. 22, 2020.
