Bedford man sentenced on four felony charges

By: Dave Thompson | The News & Advance
Published: January 17, 2012

A Bedford County man was sentenced Tuesday on three child sex charges and the theft of an ATV, all stemming from incidents last year.

Jesse Lee Smith was sentenced in Bedford County Circuit Court to six months, with five years suspended, on the felony charges, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wes Nance said Tuesday.

Nance said Smith, now 19, was 18 at the time, and the charges stemmed from incidents with a 13-year-old and a 15-year-old.

Charges of carnal knowledge of a minor and electronic solicitation stemmed from incidents involving the 13-year-old.

Family of the victim came forward when they discovered evidence of the online communication, Nance said.

Smith faced a count of taking indecent liberties with a minor by a person in a custodial relationship, relating to an incident where he and the child were left alone, Nance said. The victim and her family came forward after that incident.

Nance said the grand larceny charge was unrelated to the others, and involved an incident in which Smith and another person took keys to an ATV from a camper, and drove off on the vehicle.

Smith had already been arrested on the other charges, and was wearing an electronic tag at the time.

As part of his sentence, Smith will have to register as a sex offender, and faces three years of active supervised probation, Nance said.