A woman was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison for sex crimes involving an 11-year-old boy.
Jacqueline Gray, 32, also has to serve five years on probation as part of her plea deal with prosecutor Pansy Glanton.
Gray entered an Alford plea, a type of plea in which a defendant does not admit guilt but agrees it is in her interest not to contest the charge.
She had been charged initially with first-degree child rape and first-degree sex offenses.
Glanton indicted Gray on lesser charges -- two counts felony child abuse by sex act and four counts of indecent liberties with a child -- after Gray agreed she would enter a plea.
Glanton said she did so to spare the victim from having to testify.
Gray also had significant mental-health issues, which could have made for a defense, and there were some inconsistencies in the victim's interviews with investigators, Glanton said.
Gray was hospitalized after suicide attempts in 2005 and in 2006 and has had severe depression, said her attorney, Mike Grace.
The mental illness makes the case different from sex cases that happen out of lust, Grace argued, asking Judge John Craig for a lesser punishment in part because Gray decided early on to plead.
"At no time has this woman ever, ever talked about a trial," he said.
The boy told investigators last year that Gray would come to his bedroom and touch him, and that she had tried to have sex with him. He said she was on the phone with a boyfriend from Florida who would tell Gray what to do.
The boy said that afterward Gray told him not to tell anyone and to pray for her.
Glanton said that investigators did not learn the boyfriend's name. Gray admitted to police to using poor judgment around the boy but denied trying to have sex with him.
The boy's grandmother told Craig that the boy, now 13, was trying to overcome the trauma of being abused. "There are times when he just gets quiet," she said. "He's getting better and he's working things out and he's doing the best he can at 13."
■ Dan Galindo can be reached at 727-7377 or at dgalindo@wsjournal.com.
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