Man Raped Four-year-Old, Gave Her Incurable STD, Gets 42 Years
A Montana man who raped a four-year-old girl and left her with an incurable STD has been sentenced to 42 years in prison.
John William Lieba II, will spend the next four decades and two years behind bars after his shocking attack on a little girl February 2016, the Daily Mail is reporting. The 22-year-old man had raped and strangled the young girl at a Fort Peck Indian Reservation, leaving her for dead. The Fort Peck Reservation is a haven for American Indians particularly the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. The reservation has a population of 10,000 people.
According to a court document, the victim and her friend had been playing in a park when Lieba began chasing them. The girls ran into the house of a woman who told the young man to vacate her property. An undaunted John William Lieba II would kidnap one of the girls less than an hour later.
The victim’s mother contacted police who launched an Amber Alert and a state-wide search for the missing girl. A witness reported seeing Leiba, who was 21-years-old at the time taking the girl towards the railroad tracks. The young man was arrested and taken into custody where he admitted that he was stressed out because he was not in a relationship with a woman. When questioned about what happened, Lieba said he had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication and could not tell them where to find the girl.
A judge has scheduled a competency hearing for John Lieba to determine if he can stand trial.https://t.co/2UYWjdDYTG
— KFYR-TV (@KFYRTV) December 16, 2016
When investigators asked him if the girl was dead, Leiba said it was highly likely. When authorities, prodded further, Leiba eventually gave them a general description of where to find the little girl. The Flathead Beacon reports that the girl was found two days later after a sheriff’s deputy noticed her shoe-less footprints in a pile of mud. Her body was discovered, cold and dehydrated inside an abandoned old truck behind a fertilizer plant.
Bruises and burst blood vessels on her neck and head showed that Leiba had tried to strangle her. Further tests concluded that the little girl had been raped and sodomized. The traumatized girl was unable to speak about what happened to her. The DNA evidence from the horrific assault matched the DNA taken from the Montana man.
John Lieba was suspected for abduction and taken into custody during the weekend of a four year old child. #MCJ102 https://t.co/fJXhbJ7SjG
— Amber Cobbins (@AmberCMCJ) February 29, 2016
John Lieba had refused to follow the suggestions of his attorneys and take a plea agreement. The 22-year-old had tried to claim insanity, but was found competent to stand trial. A jury convicted him in three days on counts of aggravated sexual abuse, assault resulting in severe bodily injuries as well as kidnapping a minor. The presiding judge sentenced Leiba to 500 months in prison on each count.
Dr. Cynthia Burrows testified and confirmed at the trial that the little girl had been left with a sexually transmitted disease that had no cure.
[Featured Image by Udra/Thinkstock]
