An Indiana man who repeatedly raped his girlfriend’s young daughter is now claiming he got an unfair sentence after a judge gave him 160 years in prison, while the little girl he assaulted for years went through mental trauma so severe that she tried to take her own life.
NBC 11Alive reports that 35-year-old Nicholas Deon Thrash is challenging his conviction. He filed an appeal at the Indiana State Supreme Court, claiming that the lengthy prison sentence given to him in 2018 was unfair for his charges. Thrash convicted of 10 counts of child molestation.
The convict also claimed that during trial, the court showed improper evidence and that he shouldn’t have been removed from the courtroom during testimony, although the man had several outbursts at trial.
The Indiana Attorney General responded to Thrash’s appeal and stated everything was done according to law and that the convict’s sentence should be upheld.
Nicholas Thrash [Police Handout]As CrimeOnline previously reported, the little girl’s mother knew of the ongoing sexual abuse, which started when her daughter was an 8-year-old. The unnamed woman allowed Thrash to continue to live with her, even after after her young daughter told her the man sexually assaulted her. The girl ended up pregnant at age 10. In September 2017, the little girl gave birth to a baby boy.
The mother is accused of telling the girl to accuse a classmate of getting her pregnant. No one in the family reported the pregnancy to the police, nor did anyone turn Thrash in for assaulting the girl.
Thrash started forcing her to have sex with him while he lived with her and the mother in their Georgia home. They eventually moved to Indiana where the abuse continued.
Officers with Indiana’s Marion Police Department told the court that child social workers in Georgia were alerted to possible abuse. Police apparently opened an investigation and found male DNA on the victim’s underwear. Georgia authorities began looking for Thrash but he fled to Indiana with the child and her mother before he was apprehended.
Prior to moving to Indiana, the mother signed a “safety plan” which required her to keep her child away from Thrash at all times. Further, she admitted she lied to both Georgia and Indiana police about Thrash’s whereabouts.
While in Indiana, the little girl’s mother took her to an abortion clinic once she learned of the pregnancy. The clinic refused to perform the procedure, according to court documents. A group of protestors reportedly saw the child at the clinic and reported the incident to police.
Thrash denied any kind of sexual involvement with the victim, even claiming the girl’s mother set him up by “artificially inseminating” the girl after she took his sperm. The jury disagreed. Thrash must serve at least 85% of his sentence before release.
The child’s mother has been sentenced to serve 20 years behind bars as part of a plea deal she agreed to. Her name has been withheld to protect the identity of the child.
Meanwhile, the victim, now 13, was taken to a mental health facility after the incident, with severe depression and suicidal tendencies. according to her grandmother, the girl completed treatment and was recently released.
The little girl, although just 13, talks of getting a job to help support the baby boy she gave birth to. She’s currently in foster care and taking a life-skills program to learn basic life skills and how to be a parent.
[Feature Photo: Nicholas Thrash/Police Handout]
