Hampton woman gets 20 years in sex abuse

A Newport News woman will spend 23 years behind bars after pleading guilty in two different cities to allowing a man to sexually assault her 10-year-old daughter.

The woman -- who spent several days silver key rings up with the man during a crack cocaine binge at two motels in 2007 -- pleaded guilty in Newport News this week to felony child neglect and pandering her child for prostitution. She got the maximum 10 years on each count when sentenced by Circuit Court Judge David F. Pugh.

Under the plea agreement reached this week, the sentence will run concurrently with a 23-year sentence already issued on March 12 in Hampton.

The Daily Press is not naming the woman to help shield the girl's identity.

"I did not object because she was immediately apologetic, told everything she knew, cooperated with the prosecution of her co-defendant, and has been remorseful throughout," said Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Robin Farkas. "Her testimony has also spared her daughter from having to testify."

The woman's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Raphael Connor, said "the 23 years in Hampton sort of shocked me, given her cooperation. So we did the best we could in Newport News."

In May 2007, the silver necklaces -- a mother of five -- and Joe Arthur Slade got the girl at a relative's apartment, bringing her to a motel on Mercury Boulevard in Hampton. Slade told the girl he'd take her shopping and to Busch Gardens the next day.

But when they arrived at the motel, Slade asked the mother to teach her daughter how to perform oral sex -- followed by the girl performing it on Slade as her mother got high in the bathroom. He also rubbed himself on her.

The next day, the mother took her daughter to the Point Plaza Suites on J. Clyde Morris Boulevard to again meet with Slade, who stands accused of then sexually assaulting the girl as her mother was outside the room. The basis for the prostitution charge is an implicit one -- that Slade paid for the sex with the drugs he provided during the binge.

In September, a Hampton jury found Slade, now 60, guilty of aggravated sexual battery and two counts of forcible sodomy, recommending 30 years behind bars. Slade has requested a new trial on the contention that his attorney didn't let him testify.

The Newport News charges against Slade have been dropped -- at least temporarily -- because he claimed he never gave permission to be swabbed for DNA. Farkas said police would get a search warrant for Slade's DNA and again ask a grand jury to indict.

"The issue isn't the silver rings," she said. "The issue is what he did to this girl."

Credit: Daily Press, Newport News, Va.