Nichols sentenced to 30 years in sexual misconduct case

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

A 50-year-old Greencastle man, found guilty last month on five counts of sexual misconduct with two minor girls, was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to 30 years in the Indiana Department of Correction.

Mark D. Nichols was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Denny Bridges, who found the former ResCare employee guilty during a three-hour bench trial on Aug. 8. Judge Bridges ordered 25 of the 30 years executed with the remaining five years of the sentence suspended on probation.

Mark D. Nichols

The Greencastle man must also file as a sex offender for 10 years following his release from prison.

Nichols was convicted of three counts of Class B felony sexual misconduct with a minor and two counts of Class C felony sexual misconduct with a minor in cases involving sexual contact with two minor girls who were in his care while working at the ResCare facility known as the Miller Jones Home on Greencastle's south side in late March and early April 2012.

While testimony of the two girls -- age 14 at the time of the incidents and now 17 -- was the focal point of the bench trial before Judge Bridges, the young women did not appear for the prosecution during a 45-inute sentencing hearing Tuesday afternoon.

"We talked to both victims after the trial," Putnam County Prosecutor Tim Bookwalter told the court, "and they were informed of the sentencing hearing and chose not to be here."

While Bookwalter called no witnesses during the sentencing hearing, defense attorney Thomas J. Gaunt of Indianapolis called only on Nichols himself and two women who have been visiting the incarcerated Nichols during his three-year stay at the Putnam County Jail.

Held in the jail since his July 2012 arrest, Nichols has served 1,165 days in jail and that time will be applied to his sentence in the DOC. His case was delayed several times with three different defense attorneys (including court-appointed lawyers Scott Adams and Trudy Selvia) being employed and some 10 defense-requested continuances granted.

At sentencing, Gaunt stressed Nichols' lack of a prior criminal record and lauded his six-year stint in the U.S. Air Force.

"I just hope that the court would give me a second chance to get out there and support my kids," Nichols said as Gaunt asked for leniency for his client.

"That's what we believe the light of justice calls for," Gaunt interjected.

"If you give him credit for his time in jail, he's served (the equivalent of) six years, and that's the minimum for a B felony," Gaunt said in asking for probation for his client, a father of nine.

"I believe my client is a good candidate for mercy today," the defense attorney said. "He's not somebody who would be at high risk of re-offending. He's a father, a hard worker and a good citizen."

Bookwalter, meanwhile, urged the court to go along with the Probation Department recommendation of a 30-year sentence for Nichols.

The prosecutor said Nichols preyed upon the young girls, who were already vulnerable from past illicit experiences with adults.

"He was a person responsible, literally like a guard to them," Bookwalter said, adding that Nichols was in "a really unique position of trust you don't normally see."

As sex crimes against minors, Nichols' actions constitute crimes of violence, the prosecutor added.

In imposing the 30-year DOC sentence, Judge Bridges ruled that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors in the case, noting that Nichols was in a position of trust when he took advantage of the 14-year-olds, whom he characterized as "troubled kids to begin with" and "minors who had been preyed upon before."

Nichols could have been facing 60 years in prison for the five convictions.

"You asked for a lenient sentence," Bridges responded to Nichols and Gaunt. "You were looking at 60 years, and I think 30 is fair."

Nichols will have 30 days to appeal the sentence. Attorney Joel Wieneke was appointed to represent Nichols in any appeal process.

After the hearing Prosecutor Bookwalter called it "a fair sentence" for a "unique case."

His main concern was for the two young victims in the case, who no longer reside in Greencastle or within ResCare facilities.

"I hope the two girls, who were obviously challenged to begin with, do well," he said.

The prosecutor noted that one girl is living with grandparents in a "good family structure" in Bloomfield, while the other is still having trust issues, he said, and has been through foster homes before landing at Gibault School in Terre Haute.

During the trial, the two young women were asked to detail how they interacted with Nichols, who was the only ResCare staff member on duty overnight, in separate incidents reported March 30 and April 6, 2012. Their stories were remarkably similar with narratives that began with Nichols sitting next to them on a couch in a downstairs common room and ended with sexual activity that escalated into intercourse.

The case went to a bench trial after a series of defense motions were rebuffed, including Gaunt's 2014 request to dismiss the case because of lack of a speedy trial. The court denied that motion three days later.