Abingdon man pleads guilty to molestation in court

ABINGDON, Va. – Tony Getman had what some might call an easy choice: plead guilty to molesting his young neighbor or take the case before a Southwest Virginia jury.

Getman took the first option Thursday, pleading guilty to sodomy and aggravated sexual battery without an agreement on sentencing, which is set for Dec. 18.

For his crimes, committed in 2007 at the Willow Run apartment complex in Abingdon, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison plus 20 years.

With such a weighty sentence pending, the court denied a request by Getman’s attorney to let him remain out on bond until sentencing.

“When he pled guilty it was just a big sigh of relief,” said the victim’s father, who flew in from Texas, where he and his son now live. “That was the big one. And then, when the judge revoked his bond … he’s being locked up.”

The father said his son, who was not in court Thursday, was a fifth-grader at Watauga Elementary School when the incidents occurred.

The 10-year-old befriended Getman, 28. The boy’s father said he shared the boy’s love of professional wrestling and “more or less acted and had the hobbies of a 12-year-old.”

He thought the friendship was harmless. He was wrong. And it wasn’t until a neighbor told him about suspicious behavior he’d observed that he realized there was a problem, the man said.

Afterward, his son was afraid to walk behind the townhouse and even to walk to the school bus stop alone, he said.

“It’s just been a nightmare,” he said of the case. “It’s been an ongoing two-year nightmare.”

He never thought such a thing would happen to his child, and he’s concerned that, in the two years Getman has been out on bond with claims of incompetency to stand trial, another child may have been victimized.

Getman, who has lived at a series of addresses in Washington and Smyth counties, also faces 50 counts of possession of child pornography; that case is set for a jury trial Feb. 9.

Getman mostly stared straight ahead in the courtroom and made no statement following his conviction Thursday; neither did his attorney.

“I don’t talk to the press,” said Getman’s father, who did not give his name. “I’m very upset right now.”

Heather Howard, who prosecuted the case, said she couldn’t comment because Getman has pending charges.

Though she would not speculate on why Getman chose to plead guilty, she acknowledged that “historically, jurors in Washington County have not treated these defendants favorably.”

In 2007, another man, Sixto Laines Lopez, let a Washington County jury hear his child molestation case and was ordered to serve 26 life sentences for molesting his elementary school-age stepdaughter.

The father of the victim said he hopes Getman gets the maximum sentence and spends the rest of his life behind bars.

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