'Oprah' sex offender gets 52 years in jail

April 25, 2006

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNT VERNON, Ind.-- A judge on Monday gave a 52-year prison sentence to an Indiana man arrested last fall on sex abuse charges after he was profiled on "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

A Posey Superior Court jury in February convicted William C. Davis, 33, of Wadesville on three counts of child molesting while acquitting him on two others.

Davis, who did not testify during his trial, sobbed as he asked for leniency during his sentencing hearing.

"I've been to prison, and I know what's coming. It's a terrible place," he said. "With the media attention, plenty of people have told me they're going to be waiting on me to kill me."

Three boys testified during Davis' trial about the abuse they said happened in 2004, when they were ages 13, 12 and 5, in the county just west of Evansville.

Davis disappeared in the summer of 2004, after learning that police were looking for him, authorities said. He was arrested Oct. 6 in Fargo, N.D., two days after the Winfrey broadcast his picture during her talk show and offered $100,000 for information leading to his capture.

Two friends, women in North Dakota and Minnesota, split the reward after Davis was arrested.

Posey County Prosecutor Jodi Uebelhack said Davis likely received a longer prison sentence because he sought a trial.

"If there had been a plea agreement and the kids hadn't had to go through this, he probably would have gotten less," she said.

Davis, who was convicted in 1992 of molesting a child, also was convicted last week by a jury in neighboring Vanderburgh County on five counts of child molesting. The most serious of those charges carries a prison term of 20 years to 50 years.

He is to be sentenced on those convictions June 14.

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