By: Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A 77-year-old Yale man convicted by a Payne County jury of repeatedly sexually abusing a female relative between the ages of 5 and 12 in his home was given a 25-year prison term Tuesday by Associate District Judge Stephen Kistler.
Before his sentencing, Jerry Martin Gustafson told the judge in court Tuesday, “I’m not guilty — I’ve never done anything,” like that.
Gustafson’s court-appointed defense attorney Jodie Gage said, “We think the 25 years recommended by the jury is excessive…basically a life sentence. He’s been in custody for 19 months. We ask for credit,” for the time he has been held in the Payne County Jail.
Prosecutor Debra Vincent replied, “We ask that the sentence be imposed,” as set by the jury.
In giving Gustafson a 25-year prison term with credit for the period he has been in jail, the judge said he was following the jury’s recommendation “based on the results of the jury trial and the pre-sentencing investigation including the victim’s statement.”
Gustafson was ordered to provide a DNA sample and to register as a sex offender on his release from incarceration.
The girl’s parents had reported the sexual abuse to Payne County Sheriff’s Investigator Brandon Myers on Sept. 12, 2019, his affidavit said.
When the girl was interviewed at the Saville Center in Stillwater on Sept. 17, 2019, she disclosed that the defendant had been molesting her since she was 5, according to Myers’ affidavit.
The girl’s mother “reported to me that she had found a text message from him to her on her phone and that he would guilt-trip her into coming over,” which the girl did not want to do, Myers wrote in his affidavit.
The defendant was arrested on Sept. 19, 2019, and jailed on $50,000 bail, which the judge refused to reduce, court records show.
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