US: Texas Court of Appeals says man sentenced for alleged HIV transmission entitled to appeal hearing

The appeals process is still alive for a Collin County man who knowingly infected six women with the HIV virus.

In 2009, P of Frisco was convicted of six counts of sexual assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to 45 years in prison. Doctors during his trial testified that P knew he had the virus but continued to have unprotected sex with his victims without telling them.

P lost an appeal in 2011, claiming that he was denied effective assistance of counsel at trial. But instead of slamming the door shut on Wednesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said he’s entitled to a hearing over whether he can get court records and transcripts, which keeps the case alive.

One of the victims, who testified under the pseudonym Susan Brown, is not happy about today’s ruling.

“Many people will say that no one under any circumstances should be sent to jail for willingly passing on HIV to their partners, and I take issue with that,” said Brown.

But Brown considers herself one of the lucky ones. Because she was tested and began preventative treatment early in the process, she is relatively healthy considering the possible outcomes.

“Some of the other victims, by the time they found out, already had AIDS and they are in big trouble,” noted Brown.

The conviction was the first time such a law was used in Texas and the third time nationally that DNA was used to trace the virus to a defendant.

A jury sentenced a suburban Dallas man to 45 years in prison Friday for knowingly infecting six women with the AIDS virus.

A jury sentenced a suburban Dallas man to 45 years in prison Friday for knowingly infecting six women with the AIDS virus.

P, described by his own lawyer as a “modern-day Casanova,” shook his head and looked down when the decision was read. Jurors sentenced him to 45 years on five counts and 25 years on the sixth, to be served concurrently. P had faced up to 99 years.

The Collin County jury convicted 53-year-old P on Wednesday on six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Since HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, prosecutors contended P’s bodily fluids were a deadly weapon.

P is a former martial arts instructor who continued to have unprotected sex after he tested positive for HIV in 2005.

Assistant District Attorney Lisa King in Collin County told jurors earlier Friday that P deserved a life sentence.

FRISCO — A 51-year-old martial arts instructor is accused of recklessly endangering at least four women by having unprotected sex with them, even though he knew he carried the virus that causes AIDS.

Police arrested PP Friday night at a bar in Addison on four warrants of first-degree aggravated assault.

The Frisco Police Department says P has known he is HIV-positive since the fall of 2005, but didn’t tell any of the people he slept with about his diagnosis.

At least one of the women P slept with has tested positive for HIV, according to authorities.

P worked as a martial arts instructor at EC Athletics in Plano, a school that teaches cheerleading, tumbling, and martial arts.

“We never had any idea that anything was going on,” said manager Lee Ward, “and never would have had him in our facility had we known if that was the case.”

P remains in the Collin County jail in lieu of $200,000 bond

After FOX 4 showed the photo of PP Wednesday night, at least two more women have contacted Frisco police, saying they may also be infected with HIV after sleeping with the 51-year-old martial arts instructor.

“He’s like a terrorist with a different kind of bomb, slowly infecting as many people as he could have sex with,” said a woman we’re calling “Elaine” to protect her identity.

Elaine is an acquaintance of P, the man who on Wednesday remained in the Collin County jail on the four felony charges of First Degree Assault.

She describes him as a French playboy who seduced women he met through his job as a martial arts instructor at EC Athletics, a Plano school for cheerleading, tumbling and karate. The school teaches young children, and there are always mothers around.

“He was dating women that were married, and they didn’t know about each other,” Elaine said. “I knew about four or five.”

So far four women have tested positive for HIV. Frisco police Sgt. Gerald Meadors says each of woman eventually discovered she wasn’t P’s exclusive partner. One believed his monogamous lies for four years.

“The victims learned of each other, and through talking with each other were themselves tested,” he said.

Police arrested P at a bar in Addison and say they have no idea how many people he may have come into contact with since testing HIV-positive in 2005.

“I know he was going out every night,” said Elaine.