Man Pleads Guilty To Raping, Impregnating ‘Especially Vulnerable’ 11-Year-Old Girl

An Oregon man has been sentenced to more than two decades behind bars for raping and impregnating an 11-year-old girl.

Billy Joe Smith, 28, of Sprague River, pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of first-degree rape for assaulting the girl in November 2017, according to The Oregonian. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison the same day.

He had been arrested in Nevada and extradited to Oregon where he was charged in March 2018 after it was discovered that the girl was 18 weeks pregnant, according to the Herald and News in Klamath Falls, Oregon. She named Smith as the father, according to a 2018 Herald and News report, a fact subsequently confirmed by a DNA test.

He'd fled the state in order to avoid the consequences of the 2017 incident, prosecutors said.

It’s not clear what the victim’s relationship is to Smith but one of the charges dismissed against Smith involved incest, the Herald and News reports. Judge Andrea Janney described the victim as “especially vulnerable” in a previous bail hearing, according to a 2018 Herald and News report. A first-degree sex abuse charge was also dismissed as part of the plea deal.

Billy Joe Smith, 28, of Sprague River, has been sentenced to 25 years behind bars for raping and impregnating an 11-year-old girl. Photo: Klamath County Jail

It’s not clear if the victim had the baby and if so, where the child is at this time.

Smith is also wanted in Wisconsin on charges of forgery, battery and resisting arrest, according to the Oregonian. It’s unclear if he will ever face trial for those charges.

Following his prison term, Smith will have to be on post-prison supervision for life and must register as a sex offender. He cannot have any contact with minors.