Conviction is second for HIV exposure
A judge found RR, of Lawrence, guilty Wednesday in Lyon County District Court of two counts of exposing another person to a life-threatening communicable disease.
R had waived his right to a jury trial and instead had requested a trial before Judge Jeffry Larson.
Sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 16.
R was sentenced in November 2006 to 32 months in prison after being convicted in Douglas County on four counts of HIV exposure involving three women. It was the first time someone in Kansas was taken to trial and convicted on those charges and one of the few such cases nationwide.
R’s Douglas County victims said he charmed them by making them think he cared for them but he never told them he was HIV-positive.
“The whole thing was just a complete sham and then it makes you not be able to trust other people,” one of the victims told the Journal-World in an October 2006 interview.
None of the women at the time had tested positive for the virus.
After the trial, jurors told the Journal-World that they were appalled by R’s deception, most of all his explanation that his health problems were caused by a heart condition. He claimed he was being truthful by saying he had a “HAART” condition, or highly active anti-retroviral therapy.
R still has cases pending in Wyandotte County and Johnson County, Mo.
