BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — A Martin County man will serve five years in prison after pleading guilty to a charge of sodomy of a child under the age of 12.

Martin Circuit Judge John Kevin Holbrook announced the sentence Thursday of 27-year-old Dustin Jude of Inez. 

The sentencing comes more than three years after Jude’s indictment in Martin County in November 2021. The indictment charged Jude with first-degree sodomy of a victim under 12 years of age, a Class A felony punishable by 20 to 50 years or life in prison. According to the indictment, Jude engaged in deviant sexual intercourse with the victim for two years beginning in September 2018.

Jude was arrested on the charge Nov. 8, 2021, and subsequently released from jail in July 2022, with in-home incarceration stipulated.

In April 2023, Jude pleaded guilty to an amended charge of second-degree sodomy, a Class C felony punishable by 5 to 10 years in prison.