Custis receives 8-year sentence

Saturday, July 10, 2010
David Custis

GREENCASTLE -- A Fillmore man has been sentenced to eight years at the Indiana Department of Correction after being convicted of Class C felony vicarious sexual gratification.

David A. Custis, 29, was arrested in May of 2009. He was charged with Class C felonies child molesting and vicarious sexual gratification and Class D felony performing sexual conduct in the presence. The state also sought to have Custis deemed a habitual offender.

According to court records, Indiana State Police Detective Jeff Hearon was contacted on Dec. 3, 2008 by officials from the Putnam County Division of Family Services about a possible child molestation case.

A narrative on the case said the victim's mother asked the victim, who was younger than 14 when the molestation occurred, if anything had happened with Custis. The child admitted to her mother than it had, and that Custis "told her not to tell anyone what was going on."

When the victim was interviewed by Hearon, she said she had been molested by Custis more than five times.

When he was interviewed in January 2009, Custis denied ever molesting the girl. He was asked to take a polygraph test and said he would, but later declined the test, court records said.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, all other charges were dropped in exchange for Custis' guilty plea to the one Class C felony. Eight years is the maximum sentence Judge Matthew Headley could have given Custis.

At Custis' initial hearing on May 12, 2009, he entered not guilty pleas to all charges and Headley set Custis' bond at $20,000 with 10 percent allowed. Bond in the amount of $2,005 was posted for Custis on Aug. 24, 2009, and he was released from jail.

The state filed a petition to revoke Custis' bond on April 9. That request was granted on April 15, and Custis was ordered held without bond.

Custis will receive credit for the 182 days he spent in jail. Under the tenets of Indiana Good Time Credit, he will also receive one day of credit for each day he spends without incident in prison.

Upon his release, Custis will be required to register as a sex offender and cannot have any contact with his victim. He will also have to pay court costs, fines and a public defender fee.

Custis currently has two other cases pending against him in the Putnam County courts. He was sentenced to jail time and probation on Oct. 24, 2008 for Class C misdemeanor operating a motor vehicle with at least .08 grams of alcohol in .210 liters of breath. He was accused of violating his probation and his bond was revoked in that case on May 11, 2009. An evidentiary hearing is set for Nov. 9.

On May 11, 2009 Custis was arrested and charged with Class D felonies operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person and operating a motor vehicle with at least .15 grams of alcohol in .210 liters of breath and Class A misdemeanors operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person and operating a motor vehicle with at least .15 grams of alcohol in .210 liters of breath. A jury trial in that case is set for Nov. 9.

Two active protective orders against Custis are also on file in Putnam County.

This is Custis' fourth prison sentence. According to information on the Indiana Department of Correction Web site he was sentenced in April 2004 to three years, eight months for Class C felony battery; to three years in August 2001 for Class D felony theft and receiving stolen property; and to two years, four months in July 1999 for Class C felony battery.

All of those convictions occurred in Putnam County.

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  • Judge Headley its time you do everything in your power to help change these laws and keep creeps like this off our streets. This guy has ruined enough lives.

    -- Posted by takeastand on Sat, Jul 10, 2010, at 11:38 AM
  • Headley has proven time again he doesn't care. Maybe if the victim were a relative of his he would feel differently about letting these creeps run the streets.

    Of course there will be more and more criminals as long as they know nothing is going to happen to them when they break the law.

    -- Posted by putnammom on Sat, Jul 10, 2010, at 12:20 PM
  • Did he just get off easy, or is it me? Remember how the judge operates in the next election, people, because he works for you. It is time to stand up and demand better for our kids and our community!

    -- Posted by mrshandy2010 on Sat, Jul 10, 2010, at 8:31 PM
  • He gets of easy, I agree, mrshandy2010, but like the article said that's all the judge could do. It was the maximum he could sentence him considering the charges. I'm sure Headley wanted to throw the book at him... a prior record, habitual offender, child molester... get him off the streets and out of my neighborhood.

    -- Posted by MsBehaving on Tue, Jul 13, 2010, at 10:52 AM
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