NEWS

Court upholds child molester’s convictions

Douglas Walker
Muncie Star Press
Ashley Lynn Stapert

MUNCIE – The Indiana Court of Appeals on Thursday had bad news for a Muncie woman linked to one of the community’s most disturbing sex crimes.

Ashley Lynn Stapert, 24, was sentenced to 100 years in prison last November after a jury found her guilty of two counts of child molesting.

Witnesses said Stapert and her then-boyfriend, Bryan Michael Strickler, sexually assaulted a friend’s 6-month-old daughter in November 2011. The attack left the baby with a sexually transmitted disease.

In her appeal, Stapert contended Delaware Circuit Court 2 Judge Kimberly Dowling should not have allowed the victim’s medical records to be used as evidence in her trial.

The Muncie woman also maintained she should have been convicted of only one count of molesting.

In a 3-0 ruling, the appeals court upheld Dowling’s rulings on both issues. The judges noted Stapert’s abuse of the baby involved two separate acts.

At last year’s sentencing hearing, Deputy Prosecutor Zach Craig called Stapert a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

Stapert is incarcerated at the Rockville Correctional Facility in western Indiana. Her projected release date is in June 2079, when she would be 88.

Strickler, now 27 and held in the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, is also serving a 100-year prison term.

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.