81-year-old child abuser sentenced to jail

SALT LAKE CITY — An 81-year-old man was sentenced to jail Friday after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a young girl who was delivering cookies.

Jay Marvin Smith, of Murray, was sentenced to serve one to 15 years in prison, but 3rd District Court Judge Judith Atherton suspended the prison time and ordered that Smith serve a jail term of 270 days, to be followed by three years' probation. He was also ordered to pay $1,000 in fines and complete a sex-offender treatment program as part of his probation.

Smith was charged in February after the incident, involving a 10-year-old girl and her 12-year-old brother, who had gone to a neighbor's house in the area of 100 West and 6000 South to deliver cookies. While there, the siblings decided to also give some cookies to Smith, who lived alone in the basement apartment of the home.

Once inside the apartment, and while the brother wasn't looking, the man "forced (the girl) into a corner between the wall and couch" and abused her, court documents state.

The girl told her parents what had happened as soon as she got home, police said, and Smith was questioned and arrested that same day.

Smith was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, but pleaded guilty in June to an amended charge of sex abuse of a child, a second-degree felony.

— Emiley Morgan