All but six months of a five-year sentence was suspended for a Thaxton man convicted Monday morning of taking indecent liberties with minors.
Robert Mitchell Quarles, 47, of Thaxton, entered Alford pleas to the two counts of taking indecent liberties and to a single count of misdemeanor sexual battery. In an Alford plea, the defendant maintains his innocence, but admits prosecutors have enough evidence to convict him of the crime.
Quarles was indicted on one count of indecent liberties with a minor, five counts of animate object sexual penetration, four counts of aggravated sexual battery, one count of sexual battery, five counts of unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor and three counts of attempted unlawful carnal knowledge of a minor.
Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Wheelock said the case was difficult because it involved victims who were 9, 14, and 16 at the time of the December 2006 crime who would have had to testify had Quarles gone through with a jury trial scheduled for Tuesday morning.
“We thought it was a compromise that allowed us to protect the commonwealth in the future,” Wheelock said. “He’s (now) a convicted felon and sex offender and people will know what he is.”
Bedford County Circuit Court Judge James Updike accepted the pleas and sentenced Quarles to five years in prison, suspending four years and six months. Updike also ordered that Quarles undergo three years of supervised probation, five years of good behavior, have no contact with the victims, have no unsupervised contact with minors, register as a sex offender and undergo sex offender evaluation and any treatment deemed necessary by his probation officer.
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