William James Jehle, 62, of De Soto has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of molesting a child for more than two years, according to court documents.
Jefferson County Div. 10 Associate Circuit Judge Jeffrey Coleman on July 11 sentenced Jehle to life in prison for two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy, one count of first-degree statutory rape and one count of statutory rape. Each sentence runs consecutively to each other for a total of four life sentences, court records show.
A Jefferson County jury on March 28 found Jehle guilty on all four counts following a two-day trial. The jury’s decision came 14 years after Jehle pleaded guilty to two first-degree statutory sodomy charges in a separate case, court documents said.
Jehle was accused of molesting a child younger than 12 years old from Dec. 20, 2008, through May 17, 2011, court records show.
Jefferson County assistant prosecuting attorneys Shannon O’Neal and Neilson Lea prosecuted the case.
Jehle was already serving a 30-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to first-degree statutory sodomy charges in November 2011. In that case, he admitted to molesting a child who was younger than 14 years old between Aug. 1, 2009, and Dec. 10, 2010, court records show.
He currently is in the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston, according to Missouri Department of Corrections records.