Man given SIS, probation after pleading guilty to statutory rape in plea agreement

Blake Dalton White, 20, appeared before Circuit Judge Craig Carter July 19 and pleaded guilty to one count of statutory rape pursuant to a plea agreement with the state. As part of the agreement, an additional count of statutory rape and two counts of statutory sodomy were dismissed.

He was given a suspended imposition of sentence and placed on supervised probation for a term of 5 years. 

“Victim’s family appears and agrees with the plea as the defendant was barely older than the victim at the time of the occurrence, and the SIS further allows that court to sentence the defendant for a period of up to life in prison if he misbehaves in the future,” an online docket entry by the judge about the case says. 

The case is in connection with the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in Zanoni in November and December 2020 when he was 17. 

The case came after an Ozark County grand jury indicted White of the charges on May 18, 2022. 

According to the probable cause statement prepared by Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin, the sheriff was notified of the sexual assault by a woman on Feb. 1. The woman who reported the allegations said the 13-year-old girl told her White sexually assaulted her on different occasions, and she had told him on at least two occasions before the assault that she did not want to engage in the acts. The girl reportedly said that White told her that he’d tell her relatives what happened, and they would be disappointed in her. 

At one point the girl was concerned that she was possibly pregnant and told the adult about the incidents, explaining that White was scared “because what he had done was illegal, and if she was pregnant, he would kill himself,” the report says. The woman then called the sheriff’s office to make the report. 

White had been held in the Ozark County Jail pre-trial for more than a year before the plea. He was arrested on June 24, 2022 and released July 20 of this year.