KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Platte City man was sentenced on Thursday to 35 years in prison for sexually abusing a girl from the time she was 8 years old.
Joshua Michael Lay, 38, pleaded guilty in May to statutory sodomy in the first degree after initially entering a not-guilty plea.
Platte County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Zahnd said Lay’s “evil acts” demanded a “lengthy” sentence.
In April 2017, a girl told staff at Children's Mercy Hospital that Lay sexually abused her, beginning sometime around 2010. She also told a child forensic investigator the abuse continued until she reported it.
Lay, after changing his plea, admitted that he once slapped the girl in the face “when she attempted to pull away from a sex act,” according to Zahnd.
“The defendant cut short this girl's childhood, something she'll never be able to regain,” Zahnd said.
