HARTFORD CITY, Ind. – A Hartford City man has failed to reduce his 24-year sentence for a pair of child abuse convictions.
Bryan Gonzalez-Medina, now 31, was charged in September 2022 with eight counts of child molestation: four level 1 felonies, each carrying a maximum prison sentence of 40 years, and four level 4 felonies, each carrying a maximum prison sentence of 12 years.
In April, after striking a deal with the Blackford County Prosecutor’s Office, Gonzalez-Medina pleaded guilty to two of the Level 4 charges, and the other six charges were dismissed.
Blackford Circuit Court Judge Brian Bade subsequently imposed a prison sentence of up to 24 years.
The Hartford City man was accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl multiple times over a one-year period. Hartford City Police and the state Department of Child Services conducted a subsequent investigation.
In an interview with a Hartford City police detective, Gonzalez-Medina admitted to several of his accuser’s allegations.
In a later appeal against his sentence, Gonzalez-Medina claimed that the judge’s decision to impose a maximum sentence was inappropriate given the suspect’s “character.” The Blackford County man had no prior criminal convictions.
In recent days, the Indiana Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal.
In the 3-0 ruling, Judge Nancy Vaidik noted that Gonzalez-Medina “did not abuse the victim twice; he acknowledged that he abused her approximately 25 times.”
The judge also noted the grim nature of some of these attacks, which could have resulted in his conviction on a Level 1 felony charge, which carries a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison.
“Despite some positive character traits, Gonzalez-Medina has failed to convince us that his 24-year prison sentence is inappropriate,” she wrote.
Gonzalez-Medina, incarcerated at the Miami Valley Correctional Facility north of Kokomo, has an expected release date of September 2040, according to a state Department of Correction website.
Douglas Walker is a news reporter at The Star Press. Contact him at 765-213-5851 or at dwalker@muncie.gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Blackford County sex offender fails to get sentence reduction
