A defendant previously charged with more than two dozen felony offenses involving sex and violent crimes has been sentenced to local jail and community control.
Jacob A.R. Smith, 21, of Rushsylvania, was sentenced to 180 days in the Logan County Jail, five years of community control and ordered to pay court costs and $450 restitution for three counts of attempted felonious assault, third-degree felonies.
The defendant’s Feb. 17 sentencing concludes a case that originated over two years ago. Deputies of the Logan County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Smith after a victim filed a report on Dec. 7, 2019.
The offenses occurred in 2017 when Smith was still a juvenile. After investigating the first report and a warrant being issued, other victims started to come forward reporting similar crimes.
A search warrant was served on Smith’s residence on Feb. 24, 2020, and he was arrested on one charge of rape.
Three victims then came forward and reported allegations to deputies. Two of the victims reported multiple separate assaults.
Smith reportedly knew his victims and developed relationships with them. He reportedly threatened to distribute a compromising image of one victim.
After receiving investigative findings from deputies, the Logan County Prosecutor’s Office began legal proceedings in the Logan County Juvenile Court as some allegations occurred when Smith was a juvenile.
Smith was found not to have been amiable to juvenile court sanctions and it was ordered that he face adult charges for the juvenile offenses. The order enabled prosecutors to present the allegations to a grand jury.
He was indicted in February of 2022 on a total of 28 charges that included over a dozen counts of rape, multiple charges of gross sexual imposition and other crimes including pandering sexually-oriented material involving a minor and extortion.
But last December as the case made it way through Logan County Common Pleas Court, prosecutors motioned to dismiss the original indictment, and a new case number was assigned that encompassed the previous court costs and included the three charges Smith ultimately pleaded guilty to.
He was credited for eight days’ jail time already served. As part of his probation, a no-contact order was filed with any of his victims until Feb. 16, 2028.