Man Gets 20 Years for Molesting Children
A 60-year-old Lancaster accountant who pleaded guilty to molesting nine children was sentenced Friday to 20 years in state prison.
Judge Charles Horan sentenced Wyman Blankenship in Antelope Valley Superior Court in accordance with a plea bargain with prosecutors, Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel N. Damon said.
Blankenship admitted last month that he molested neighborhood children and his step-grandchildren over several years, Damon said. He was arrested March 21 when one child came forward.
The molestations started four years ago and continued until March of this year, Damon said. The children, eight boys and one girl, ranged in age from 6 to 14.
Blankenship was initially charged with 14 counts of child molestation, but five charges were dropped as part of a plea arrangement. The accountant’s early admission of guilt “spared the children the necessity of going forward” with a trial, Damon said.
“His age and the needs of the children were a factor” in offering the arrangement, he said.
Blankenship could have been sentenced to 23 years on the nine counts. Damon said Blankenship served time in 1982 for felony child molestation.
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