A Carter County man has been sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of kidnapping and assaulting a minor.
Justin Presley, 33, of Grandin was charged with kidnapping of a minor in the first degree and two counts of sodomy in the first degree. A report was filed against him from the victim, and sheriff’s deputies immediately began an investigation into the allegations, according to reports from law enforcement. Presley was arrested Jan. 23.
According to a probable cause statement by the Carter County Sheriff’s Office, Presley was a friend of the victim’s family. On Nov. 20, 2022, Presley picked up the victim from the family’s home in his car. He brought the victim to his residence to watch a movie. There, the victim was ordered to undress before being restrained and molested.
The trial was held in Butler County after a change of venue request. Presley was sentenced to the Missouri Department of Corrections, where he will serve nine years for the kidnapping conviction and seven years each on the sodomy convictions, all to run concurrently.
Editor's note: the sentence was incorrectly written as 23 years in the original version of this story. This article was updated with the correction at 3:23 p.m. Aug. 30, 2023.