BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN

INEZ — A 75-year-old Ohio man convicted of sexually abusing children was sentenced Thursday in Martin Circuit Court to three concurrent five-year prison terms, a result of a plea deal that reduced the severity of some charges.

John D. Perry from Eastlake, Ohio, was sentenced for crimes that he admitted to in September 2024.

A Martin County grand jury indicted Perry in October 2023 accusing him of two counts of first-degree sexual abuse involving a child under the age of 12 and one count involving a child under the age of 16.

According to the indictment, the abuse began in 2013. On March 31 of that year, Perry targeted a child under 12, followed by another instance April 5, 2015. The third charge stems from an incident April 1, 2018, involving a child under 16.

These charges carried serious penalties: the first two, classified as Class C felonies, could have resulted in 5 to 10 years each. The third, a Class D felony, came with a potential sentence of 1 to 5 years.

But in a turn, for unknown reasons, a plea deal altered the trajectory.

As outlined in court documents signed Thursday by Martin Circuit Judge J. Kevin Holbrook, the Commonwealth’s Attorney agreed to reduce the charges related to the younger victim from Class C to Class D felonies. The result: Perry’s time behind bars was significantly curtailed.