Man gets 12 years in prison on sex with a minor charges

An Indiana man pled guilty to two counts of 4th degree sexual assault during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court/Criminal Division Monday.
Twenty-five-year-old Juan Martin Blankenship was sentenced to 12 years in prison for having sex with a female juvenile in 2021. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.

The victim, who was 13 at the time, her mother and sister all presented impact statements to the court.

The mother said her presentation did not represent a victim impact statement but a “survivor’s statement.” She addressed Blankenship directly and said, “you did not break my 13-year-old daughter, she has survived.”

The women told the court while they had lived through the trauma of the events involving Blankenship, that what had happened had left them all with deep emotional and psychological scars.

All three of the women had difficulty making their statements, often speaking through tears and stopping frequently to compose themselves.

When Blankenship began to cry at the defense table, the victim’s mother said he might be crying now, but her family “had been crying for years.” At one point, Blankenship said in a soft voice that he was sorry for what had happened.

The victim said what had happened had robbed her of many things, including the ability to trust people.

The alleged sexual contact is reported to have happened during the time Blankenship lived in the Mountain Home area.

He was reported to have basically lived in motels while here. After he returned to Indiana, his whereabouts were also fairly fluid.

When Indiana law enforcement officials attempted service on Blankenship stemming from an order of protection filed in the Baxter County case, it took some time to locate him.

According to court records, there were more than seven Indiana addresses associated with Blankenship.

Information in the case is limited because the files have been sealed by the court as is normal procedure in most sex crime cases.

According to court records, Blankenship has been free on a $100,000 bond written by Triple R Bail Bonds, Inc.

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