Zachariah Thomas Morrow

After being designated a sexually violent predator in Butler County Court Thursday, a Butler man was sentenced to state prison.

Zachariah Thomas Morrow, 26, was determined to be a sexually violent predator after testimony before county Judge Timothy McCune, and sentenced to 87 months to 19 and a half years in a state correctional institution.

Morrow previously pleaded guilty on Sept. 7 to several charges, including felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, incest, aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old, and misdemeanor indecent assault of a person less than 13 years old.

He was also ordered to undergo lifetime Megan's Law registration.

Morrow was charged with 133 counts, mostly felonies, for sexually assaulting a young girl when she was between the ages of 6 and 12, starting in 2008.

Through tears, Morrow pleaded for forgiveness during the proceeding, saying that he accepted responsibility for his actions and was “serious about getting the help I need.”

“I want to change, I want to better myself for my family as well as my community,” he said.

Julia Lindemuth, a member of the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board, testified that she completed the report regarding Morrow's case, and reviewed investigation material including police reports, criminal history, witness and victim statements, and court proceeding transcripts, and determined that Morrow met the criteria for a pedophiliac disorder, with sexual interest in prepubescent children. She said Morrow chose not to cooperate and be interviewed during the process.

“In my opinion, Morrow is sexually deviant with his behaviors, including ongoing sexual interest with a child between the ages of 6 and 12, that persisted more than six months,” she said.

A sexually violent predator is a sex offender who has “a mental abnormality or personality disorder the makes the person likely to engage in predatory sexually violent offenses,” according to the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board's website.

“Predatory behavior is established through an analysis of the offense behavior, the relationship of the offender to the victim, the sequence of behavior, and the relationship of the offense behaviors to those behaviors established in the field of sexual deviancy as being related to the risk to re-offend sexually,” the website stated. “All SOAB members shall consider the criteria set forth in statute, including but not limited to such as age of offender, mental capacity of the victim, whether the offense involved multiple victims, for their relevance both to personality disorder/mental abnormality, as well as to predatory sexual behavior, as found in the empirical literature in the field of sexual deviance.”

Morrow's attorney, public defender Charles Nedz, argued that no evidence had been put forth that there were any other victims, no unusual cruelty was involved in the incidents, that Morrow had no prior record, had no previously diagnosed mental disorders and was not interviewed for the determination, and therefore did not meet the criteria.

Judge McCune disagreed, saying it was clear that while Morrow did not meet all the factors, not all factors are needed in making the determination.

McCune said Morrow taking responsibility “goes a long way” to getting the help he needs, and allowing the victim to gain some closure and “somehow recover.”

Butler police began the investigation into the incidents after the girl, who lives in Allegheny County, told a family member that Morrow had sexually assaulted her for years in Butler and the surrounding area.

The girl's father notified police, who were assisted in the investigation by the Butler County Children and Youth Services agency and the Butler County Alliance for Children.

Police said Morrow almost immediately offered up his videotaped confession, corroborating all of the girl's allegations.

He was arraigned and held in the Butler County Prison on $75,000 bail.