UPDATED: Foote sentenced to 80 years in prison

George Foote, Jr.

A rural Sullivan County man, who was convicted of molesting his two teenage daughters for more than a dozen years, was sentenced to 80 years in prison Friday morning.

George A. Foote, 38, of rural Dugger and formerly of Bloomfield and eastern Greene County, learned his fate during a nearly two-hour hearing in Greene Circuit Court.

Greene County Prosecutor Jarrod Holtsclaw called Foote "the worst of the worst among child molesters" and he acknowledged this was the toughest case he has tried.

"He (Foote) chose to try and satisfy himself," the prosecutor stated in his closing statement. "Nothing that you do here today is going to fix what these girls (the victims) went through."

Holtsclaw said Foote had betrayed the fatherly trust that his biological daughters were entitled too.

"The things he made them do is despicable," the prosecutor said. "He took the normal life of two girls and killed them for this own sexual gratification."

Foote was found guilty by a jury Aug. 22 of two counts of child molesting , both class A felonies, and two counts of child molesting, one a class B felony and the other a class C felony.

In his sentencing, Judge Erek Allen spoke directly to Foote and said, "I believe this is a sentence that reflects the severity of what you did."

Judge Allen also explained that Foote had violated the trust of the two victims as their biological father in the "most heinous fashion possible."

Court testimony showed that Foote was guilty of a variety of sex acts -- including intercourse with at least one of the victims.

The judge acknowledged that Foote had no previous criminal record. But said since the molestations occurred over a long period of time -- 13 years according to one of the victims -- the defendant had plenty of time to reflect on his actions, stop them and seek counseling.

The acts continued for years, even with other family members present in the same house, the judge pointed out.

Judge Allen said the family unit was destroyed by Foote's actions -- which resulted in the two girls being separated from their younger biological brother because they were placed in foster care after the allegations became public in March 2007.

"Clearly due to the heinous nature of these crimes, the aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating factors," Allen stated.

The actual sentence Allen handed down totaled 98 years. This included 40 years for Count 1 -- child molesting (A-Felony), six years for Count 2 -- incest (C-Felony); 40 years for Count 3 -- child molesting (A-Felony); and 12 years for Count 4 -- incest (Class B felony).

He ruled that Counts 1 and 2 would run concurrently and Counts 3 and 4 will run concurrently, but the two child molesting charges will run consecutively -- meaning he will have to complete the 40 years from the first molesting before credit can start for the second 40 year sentence on the molesting charge involving the second victim.

He was given credit for 88 days spent in the county jail while awaiting sentencing.

Foote will be eligible for parole in about 40 years when he is 78 years old. If he is paroled, he will have to register for life as a violent sexual offender.

Foote, dressed in a jail-issued black and white colored jumpsuit, had no reaction when Judge Allen announced his sentence. He did wipe tears several times during the proceedings when his family members and former boss were presenting testimony as character witnesses.

Foote did not testify in his two trials or at Friday's hearing.

At the sentencing hearing, the defense presented six character witnesses on Foote's behalf -- including his wife, mother, younger sister, his employers, and a co-worker.

The prosecutor had both victims testify at the hearing.

Defense attorney David E. Schalk, of Bloomington, told the court that he plans to appeal the case.

The prosecutor had asked for an aggregate sentence with all counts running consecutively that totaled 100 years in prison.

Foote was also fined on each count, assessed court costs and ordered to pay a variety of sexual victim assistance fees, public defender fees and other costs related to the case which tallied all but a couple hundred dollars of the $10,500 cash bond he had put up after his arrest.

Foote was arrested in October 2007 following an investigation by the Greene County Prosecutor's Office and the Greene County office of the Indiana Department of Child Services that started on March 13, 2007 when one of the girls told a Bloomfield School guidance counselor about the molestations.

Foote first went to trial in April, but that ended in mistrial when a problem with a juror developed.

Charges were re-filed by the prosecution and tried for the second time in August using a jury brought from Knox County.

The two teen girls testified during the trial that Foote repeatedly molested each of them dating back about to at least 2004.

However, in court on Friday, the older of the two victims said the molestations went back 13 years when she and her sister were 4 and 3 years old, respectively.

The girls -- now 17 and 16 -- have been adopted by foster parents and are now living outside of the county.

Both have changed their last name.

Schalk, who was hired by Foote after the jury handed down its guilty verdict, disputed Holtsclaw's claim that his client was among the worst of child molesters.

"I really don't think this case stands out from the others. It seems like it's typical and doesn't seem like the worst of the worst," Schalk said. "I don't want to minimize what the jury found. This kind of crime has consequences and I think the state has overstated the case ... this is all tragic, but life is going on. The man has admirable character traits ... and they should be considered as mitigating factors," he said.

He asked the court to consider rehabilitation factors and requested that the court assign much of the sentence to probation and no more than 30 years in prison.

"It's a tragic situation. I ask for some mercy for him (Foote) so he can have some kind of a life outside of the prison system," Schalk concluded.