Since he was jailed in 2007, the incarceration of sex offender Millard Junior Bonnette, 75, has cost Marshall County an estimated $12,000, according to Prosecutor Jeff Cramer.

Now, thanks to a plea agreement, he'll no longer be a charge on the county's jail bill.

Nearly two years to the day since charges were filed against him, the man accused of sexually abusing five young girls pleaded guilty to five counts of a lesser offense of first-degree sexual abuse before Circuit Judge Mark A. Karl on Friday. He was sentenced to one to five years in prison for each count, with two of the sentences suspended, for an effective sentence of three to 15 years. In addition, Bonnette must serve two years supervised probation upon his release, followed by 20 years of supervised released. He also must register for life as a sex offender.

Karl ordered Bonnette be transferred to the Division of Corrections side of the jail.

In October 2007, Bonnette was charged with sexual abuse by a custodian after several juvenile girls reported he touched them inappropriately that summer. In some of the criminal complaints, the girls claimed they were wearing bikinis at the time of the alleged abuse, as Bonnette had taken them for rides on a motorized watercraft on the Ohio River near Fish Creek. Bonnette was freed on bond, but he was not to have any contact with young girls.

However, Bonnette was arrested again in April 2008 after he allegedly entered the Moundsville Wal-Mart with several young girls on two occasions and purchased bathing suits for the girls one time. His bond was revoked after that incident, and, he has been in the Northern Regional Jail ever since, awaiting trials that have been scheduled and then vacated for various reasons.

In addition to putting an end to the extensive jail cost, Cramer said this plea accomplishes several major issues for his department; most importantly, it provides the victims with an end to the matter now, and not several years later.

"Since each of the victims were going to be witnesses for one another, no one was going to put this behind them until all five trials were completed," Cramer said. "The overwhelming response from them regarding the extension of this plea offer was one of relief that the cases would be over without the girls having to testify and a desire for my office to make it happen, if possible. I absolutely would not have made this plea offer without the approval of the victims and the investigation officer, Cpl. (Mike) Hogan of the West Virginia State Police."

Secondly, Cramer said the guilty plea keeps Bonnette behind bars and unable to "attempt to do this again."

"He is 75 years old," Cramer acknowledged. "A three- to 15-year sentence for this defendant is not the same as a three- to 15-year sentence for an 25-year-old."

In 1953, Bonnette was convicted of a sex crime in West Virginia and did time in the West Virginia Penitentiary before the charge was dismissed.