A St. Mary’s County man has been sentenced to 30 years in jail for sexually abusing his daughter, who was three years old at the time of the offense. Donald Millsaps, III, 35, of California was sentenced to 15 years each for Sex Abuse of a Minor and Second Degree Sex Offense, with the sentences to run consecutive. Millsaps was convicted of the two charges by a jury on April 3 of this year.
The sentence was imposed by St. Mary’s County Circuit Court Judge Michael Stamm and was the maximum allowed under state sentencing guidelines. Because of the offenses Millsaps will have to serve at least 50 percent of the sentence before being eligible for parole.
During the sentencing hearing on Friday the judge quashed a motion by Millsaps’ attorney, public defender Gerald Riviello to have counseling records from Walden of the victim introduced. An attorney for Walden argued that the records were privileged and to release them would violate federal law.
Because the victim’s family didn’t want the records released, the judge ruled that there could be no proof that the victim was injured, although he said the victim obviously has suffered psychological injury. If it had been ruled that an injury occurred the sentencing guidelines would have been higher.
Riviello argued there was a possibility that the victim, who was six years old at the time of the trial, perjured herself during the trial. He said the victim was unable to identify her father during the trial. Deputy State’s Attorney Julie White bristled at that argument. She said, “No prosecutor will ever prosecute this child for the spurious charge of perjury.”
During the trial White argued that the child was unable to identify her father seated at the defense table because, “Maybe it was just too much to claim that man as her father because of what he did to her.”
Millsaps did not testify at his trial; but a lengthy interview tape with police was played in which he repeatedly changed his story until he finally admitted her placed his penis in her mouth and ejaculated.
The victim’s mother testified during the sentencing hearing. She called her child “honest, creative, one of a kind,” She added, “Throughout this whole experience her story has never changed, not one bit.” She said he daughter has nightmares and trouble sleeping. She said she wants to lead a normal life but “she has terrible things in the back of her mind that she has to deal with.”
Millsaps was taking care of her daughter at the time of the incident. The mother called it a “broken trust.” White told the judge that Millsaps job was to take care of his daughter and protect her. She s
