SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. — The trial of an Air Force technical sergeant who fled Illinois to avoid child sexual assault charges began Monday with the defendant pleading guilty to two charges.

David Lawrence Helm pleaded guilty to a desertion charge and to illegally recording the private area of a woman. He pleaded not guilty to charges he sexually assaulted the woman.

Helm also is accused of raping a girl, but the status of those charges was pending as a defense attorney andmilitary prosecutors negotiated terms of a plea agreement. He is accused of sexually assaulting a girl between the ages of 12 and 16 at several locations in 2013 and 2014, including at Illinois' Scott Air Force Base and in Tennessee.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports a statement read on behalf of the victim who is now 15 years old, indicated the rape left her feeling suicidal and unable to trust men.

"I had a knife to my wrist and I was going to work my way up my arm and I only stopped, because they opened the door," the victim said in the statement read by Special Victim's Council Capt. Amanda Snipes.

Helm, 35, was scheduled for trial earlier this year. However, he went missing from Scott Air Force Base on May 29. He was declared a fugitive in early June and later arrested in Nevada.

A spokesman for the Nevada State Highway Patrol said Helm told a trooper that he visited Las Vegas, went skydiving and drove a high-performance race car as part of his "bucket list." Helm was pulled over for having a broken tail light on his motorcycle. A search of his license plate turned up the fugitive arrest warrant.

Share:
In Other News
Load More