Dolson Sentenced to 30 Years on Eight Counts of Sodomizing Children

Jacob Dolson was sentenced Thursday to 30 years in prison by St. Charles County Circuit Court Judge Richard Zerr. The judge sentenced him to 30 years on each of nine counts of first-degree sodomy and 15 years for one count of child molestation.

Dolson, 18, pleaded guilty April 30 to the involving children ages ranging from 3 to 9 years old in his mother’s in-home daycare.

“Mr. Dolson, I wish I could find it in my heart to focus on your age in giving this sentence, but I feel I have to focus more on the harm you’ve done to these victims, which I find to be incalculable,” Zerr said after giving the sentence.

Dolson is required by law to complete at least 85 percent of his sentence, assuming he completes a two-year program for sex offenders while in prison. As a result, Dolson will have to serve at least 25½ years of his sentence.

If he does not complete the sex offender program, he would have to serve 100 percent of the sentence. When he is released from prison he is subject to lifetime registration as a sex offender.

Defense attorney Ross Buehler had asked Zerr to consider Dolson’s age, his close support by friends and family, success in school and a lack of a previous criminal record.

Assistant prosecuting attorney Becky Shaffar had recommended a sentence of 50 years in prison. She said Dolson’s support among family and friends, his success at school and religious upbringing makes his crime that much more disturbing.

“He fooled everyone,” Shaffar said. “That just says to me there are two Jacob Dolsons: one he portrays with family and friends and another when he is alone with little girls.”

During Thursday’s hearing, several parents of the victims gave statements and Zerr listened to videotaped statements by two of Dolson’s victims on hand-held devices.

During the hearing, one mother, reading a statement, said, “What Jake did to my baby was to steal her God-given gift of innocence.”

The father of one of the victims said, “I want everyone to know what this man did so no one else will be hurt. “

He looked at Dolson and said, “This isn’t an illness that goes away. It’s a scar that never goes away. The anger I feel is indescribable.”

Another mother said her daughter wakes with night terrors and is afraid to sleep alone.

“She says, ‘I keep seeing Jacob’s mean face, and it scares me,” the mother said.