Jury finds Ogden sex offender guilty of sexually abusing another child
Richard Drew Rhodes, 34, was found guilty of one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and four counts of sodomy on a child Nov. 10. It was his second child sex abuse conviction.
OGDEN — A jury has found a convicted sex offender guilty of five first-degree felonies after he sexually abused a young boy.
After two hours of deliberation Thursday, Nov. 10, an eight-member jury found Richard Drew Rhodes — a 34-year-old from Ogden — guilty of one count of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and four counts of sodomy on a child.
In 2013 Rhodes sexually abused the boy, who was under the age of 12, court documents connected to his arrest warrant say. The child told investigators he was sexually abused by Rhodes more times than he could count, the document says.
The victim was a boy Rhodes knew, court documents say. Rhodes has been in Weber County Jail since his arrest April 9, 2015.
This week’s conviction is not the first time Rhodes has been found guilty of sexually abusing a child.
In 2003, Rhodes pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse of a child — a third-degree felony — after being accused of inappropriately touching a 13-year-old boy multiple times in North Salt Lake, Davis County Attorney Troy Rawlings said. Originally he was charged with a second-degree felony count of the crime, but prosecutors reduced the charge in exchange for Rhodes’ guilty plea.
Court records pertaining to Rhodes 2003 conviction were not readily available as of Friday, Nov. 11. Rhodes was sentenced to serve at least six months in Davis County jail before being released to Northern Utah Community Correctional Center for treatment. It’s unclear how long he spent at the treatment facility, but upon his release, he was ordered to serve three years of probation with Adult Probation and Parole.
Online court records show that in 2006, Rhodes probation was deemed unsuccessful. Court records explaining how Rhodes violated his probation weren’t available Friday afternoon.
After his probation violation, Rhodes was sentenced to serve five years at Utah State Prison in May 2006, online court records say. Utah’s sex and kidnap offender registry says he was released in 2010. He was not on probation or parole when he was taken into custody for the latest crime in April 2015.
In court Thursday, Judge Joseph Bean asked everyone in the room to not show emotion when the verdict was read. But when the jury delivered its decision, the victim’s family members hugged one another and held their hands to their mouths to suppress sobs.
Rhodes now faces a mandatory sentence of 10 years to life for the aggravated sexual abuse of a child conviction, as well as 25 years to life on each sodomy on a child convictions. His sentencing hearing is slated for Dec. 19.
You can reach reporter Loretta Park lpark@standard.net or at 801-625-4252. Follow her on Twitter@LorettaPark SE or like her on Facebook.