Portsmouth man sentenced in sex abuse case

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December 18, 2009

By KENNETH HART - The Independent The Daily Independent Fri Dec 18, 2009, 12:03 AM EST

GREENUP — A Portsmouth man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday for sexually abusing his former girlfriend’s children.

However, under the terms of his plea agreement, Dustin Wood will be released from custody in about two months.

Wood, 23, pleaded guilty in November to two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. He agreed to accept a five-year sentence on each count, with the terms to run consecutively.

But the plea bargain also stipulates that Wood will be let of jail and placed on probation after he has spent 15 months behind bars. As of Thursday, Wood had credit for 399 days served in the Greenup County Detention Center, said his attorney, James Osborne.

The balance of Wood’s sentence will be probated for five years, Greenup Circuit Judge Bob Conley said. That means he will not have to serve any additional prison time provided he does not get into trouble again and that he complies with the terms of his release.

Wood will also have to complete a sex offender treatment program and will be required to register as a sex offender, Greenup Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Maridell Malone said.

A charge of first-degree sodomy was dismissed under the terms of Wood’s plea agreement.

Wood’s former girlfriend, Christina Craft, also known as Christina St. Claire, was convicted in May of rape and sodomy for sexually abusing her daughters and for forcing them to perform sexual acts on Wood and on another former boyfriend, Buford Henderson, 40, of South Shore.

Craft, 30, of South Shore, was sentenced to 20 years. She is serving her sentence at the Otter Creek Correctional Center at Wheelwright, according to the Kentucky Online Offender Lookup System.

In convicting Craft, jurors found she made her daughters, who were 5 and 6 at the time of the abuse, place their mouths on her genitalia and threatened to punish them if they did not do likewise to Henderson and Wood.

Craft’s attorneys maintained the girls were coerced into making false allegations against their mother by their paternal grandparents, with whom they were placed after the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services removed them from Craft’s home because of her refusal to end her relationship with Henderson.

Craft and Wood dated during a period in which she and Henderson were not together, according to testimony.

Henderson also is charged with sodomy and sexual abuse. His trial is scheduled for Jan. 25. It was originally to have been in August, but was delayed after Henderson switched attorneys at the last minute, hiring Michael Curtis of Ashland and dismissing his previous counsel, public defender Steve Geurin.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.

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