Fredericktown man sentenced to 45 to 90 years in prison for child rape
A Fredericktown man convicted last year of raping a child over several years could spend the rest of his life behind bars after receiving a hefty sentence last week.
Russell Wesley Jolliffe, 33, was ordered by Judge Brandon Neuman to serve 45 to 90 years in prison following his sentencing hearing Friday afternoon in Washington County Court of Common Pleas.
A Washington County jury convicted Jolliffe at his trial in August on all charges, which included rape of a child, aggravated indecent assault, aggravated indecent assault of a child under 13 and two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child.
Jolliffe was arrested in June 2021 after Bentleyville police accused him of abusing the child at a borough residence from 2018 until 2020. A relative became suspicious in March 2021 after finding pornographic websites on the child’s electronic tablet and questioned the youth about the situation.
Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh praised the lengthy sentence imposed Friday.
“We’re going to punish child predators to the fullest extent of the law,” Walsh said Monday.
Jolliffe’s live-in girlfriend, Joanna C. Wheatley, was also charged with conspiracy in connection with the situation. Wheatley, 35, of Beallsville, pleaded guilty in August to a lesser charge of child endangerment and was sentenced to one to two years in jail, although she was given credit for time served and released. Wheatley testified on Jolliffe’s behalf at both his trial and Friday’s sentencing.
It’s not known if Jolliffe will appeal his conviction and sentence, especially since some of the phone conversations he had with his previous defense attorney, Jeffrey Wertz, were apparently recorded while he was being held at the Washington County jail.
Wertz, who was disqualified from the case by Neuman last February, filed a federal lawsuit last year against the prison board, jail officials and the facility’s Texas-based telecommunications contractor accusing them of wiretapping his phone calls with three clients. He claimed in the lawsuit that 63 phone calls with Jolliffe were recorded, which he learned about when it appeared in discovery information provided to him by prosecutors.
County officials previously said that all rules and procedures were followed, and questions were raised over whether Wertz followed the correct procedures to shield his phone calls with clients from being recorded.
The lawsuit is currently languishing in federal court in Pittsburgh with no apparent movement or recent filings.
Mark Adams, who is Jolliffe’s new defense attorney and handled both the trial and sentencing hearing, did not respond to a phone message seeking comment Monday.