Collier man gets 10-year prison sentence for infecting woman with HIV
An HIV-positive Collier County man was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for infecting a woman with the disease.
X, 48, never told the woman he had HIV when he had sex with her, authorities have said. In fact he lied about it and said he didn’t have any STDs.
The sentence was part of a plea deal in the case.
Originally X was charged for infecting two women who contracted HIV – but one of those charges was dropped.
One of X’s victims spoke in court on Thursday in Collier County – saying she is disappointed with the plea deal because it doesn’t require X to register as a sex offender after he’s released from prison.
If the case had gone to trial X could have faced up to 30 years on a conviction for just one of the felony charges.
“He said that he had been tested recently and that he was clean of everything,” the victim told us.
The victim said right before her doctor confirmed she was HIV positive – X still denied that he was. “I asked him, I confronted him and he denied it – he offered to get tested himself.”
Now the victim says she has changed jobs and is spending thousands on medicine – she cannot even imagine establishing a new love life. “How do you even comprehend having another partner?”
We spoke with the victim on Thursday who said X’s actions have altered the course of her life and she asked for her identity not to be revealed.
Asked if she thinks X would do it again, the victim said: “If he’d lied twice what’s going to stop him?”
“The future I have worked so hard toward – he has ruined,” the victim said.
As for X not being placed on a sex offender registry, the Assistant State Attorney Steve Maresca said: “Unfortunately my understanding in research of the law is that he does not qualify under that charge.”
The victim in this case tells us she has reached out to an attorney in Fort Lauderdale to help her explore changing state statute to make criminal transmission of HIV a sex crime.
Attempts to reach our local lawmakers to comment on the issue of potential legislation weren’t immediately successful.
It would unlikely impact X’s situation, or that of this victim. But she hopes it could possibly help other people.
After X’s release from prison he is to be placed on five years of probation under the terms of the plea agreement.
