Elijah Smith was sentenced during an emotional, nearly full courtroom hearing on Friday in Whitman County Superior Court. Smith was sentenced for communicating with a minor for immoral purposes. He was originally charged with child molestation before he reached a plea agreement with prosecutors last month.
Smith was initially arrested by the Whitman County Sheriff’s Office in June for reportedly molesting a young girl. In the plea deal he admitted to touching the girl on her bare bottom but claimed that it was an accident. Senior Deputy Prosecutor Tessa Scholl told judge Roger Sandberg Friday that if the case went to trial she would have charged an additional count of molestation. Scholl stated that broader molestation allegations involved multiple girls.
The parents of the victim testified during sentencing and agreed to the deal but asked for the maximum sentence of a year in jail. Smith’s high profile private defense attorney from Tacoma Bryan Hershman asked for a sentence at the bottom of the range. In the plea deal Smith agreed to an exceptionally high sentencing range which is set by state lawmakers to between 4 and 12 months in jail. Smith addressed Judge Sandberg and stated that he was deeply sorry and “never meant for this to happen.”
After hearing over an hour of testimony Judge Sandberg reluctantly sentenced Smith to the maximum exceptional sentence of a year in jail. You can listen to some of Judge Sandberg’s ruling below.
Smith was also ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years. When he gets out of jail he is prohibited from having unauthorized and unsupervised contact with anyone under 18. Smith was placed on probation for a year and ordered to pay 1,600 dollars in restitution. He has been in jail since he pleaded guilty early last month.
