A St. Louis man has been sentenced to 17 years in state prison after a jury convicted him of sexually abusing a child who was just 5 or 6 years old at the time. Ricky L. Young, 33, was found guilty in February of statutory sodomy, an offense defined under state law as deviate sexual intercourse with a person younger than 14. The case traces back to a report filed by the child's mother in the city's Mark Twain neighborhood.
According to FOX 2, the judge overseeing the case handed down the 17-year sentence following the February conviction, which was attributed to the St. Louis Circuit Attorney's Office. Young appeared in court the week before the sentencing was reported. The outlet's reporting forms the basis of nearly everything publicly known about how the case came together.
A Car Game Led to a Disturbing Disclosure
The case began on April 7, 2022, when the victim's mother filed a report with police. Per the station's report, the mother told investigators that her daughters and other siblings had been playing a game called “10 fingers” in a car, in which children were asked a series of questions and told to put down a finger each time the answer was yes.
During that game, the woman's 8-year-old daughter indicated that Young had touched her when asked whether an adult had ever done so. That response prompted the formal report to police and set off the investigation that would eventually lead to Young's conviction.
Child Advocacy Center Interview Detailed the Abuse
The 8-year-old was later interviewed at a Child Advocacy Center, where she told investigators that Young had forced her to perform a sex act on him when she was 5 or 6 years old, police said, as relayed in the same account. That interview became central to the case that a jury ultimately found credible enough to convict Young months later.
What Missouri Law Says About the Charge
Young was convicted of statutory sodomy involving a victim under 12. Under Missouri's statute on first-degree statutory sodomy, a person commits the offense by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse with another person less than 14 years of age, with a higher sentencing threshold when the victim is younger than 12, according to the Missouri Revisor of Statutes. The law sets a broad age threshold that covers the circumstances described in this case.
With the sentencing now finalized, Young faces 17 years in state prison for a crime that first came to light through a child's game in the backseat of a car nearly four years ago.
