***MEDIA ADVISORY***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 29, 2015

DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO 200.5 YEARS FOR THE MOLESTATION OF 3 CHILDREN

Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. (574) 296-1888

On Thursday, May 28, 2015, Jose Jesus Macias was sentenced to 200½ years in prison for sexually abusing three young children from 2008 through 2011. Two of the victims were living in the same home as Macias during the period of time that he was molesting them, and the third victim frequented the home on a near daily basis. The sentence was pronounced after a jury convicted Macias of 11 separate felony counts (Child Molesting, 9 counts; Dissemination of Matter Harmful to Minors, 1 count; and Vicarious Sexual Gratification, 1 count) after a four-day trial, in April of this year. During that trial, jurors heard compelling testimony from each of the three children, who explained how Macias subjected each of them to ongoing and repeated sexual abuse that spanned several years.

At the May 28, 2015, sentencing hearing, the Court received testimony from the boys’ mothers, one of whom characterized the impact the abuse has had on her son as “a broken glass—you can try to glue it back together, but it will never be the same, it can never be fully fixed…his acts have broken my son for life”.

This case was handled in Elkhart Superior Court 3 by Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Peter Britton and Katelan Doyle.

***

“Under Indiana law, all persons arrested for a criminal offense are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.”