EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — A 24-year-old Springfield man will serve 30 years in prison after pleading guilty Wednesday to charges that he sexually abused a 9-year-old girl and then plotted from jail to kill her.
The Register Guard reports (http://bit.ly/qz0inT) Jared Anthony Bernal will serve every day of his sentence under Oregon’s “Jessica’s Law” that sets mandatory minimum sentences for violent crimes and sexual abuse of children.
Bernal was arrested in April after the girl tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease and identified him as her abuser. While in jail another inmate alerted a deputy to a plot to kill the child and another potential witness.
Bernal pleaded guilty to sodomy and attempted aggravated murder. The Lane County district attorney’s office accepted a plea deal to spare the girl from a trial.
