Cape man sentenced to five years of probation in statutory rape case

A Cape Girardeau man was sentenced to five years of probation last week after he pleaded guilty in July to one count of statutory rape.

The guilty plea occurred after Cape Girardeau County prosecutors dropped seven other counts of statutory rape and sodomy.

Judge Michael Gardner sentenced Phillip P. Keller in Cape Girardeau County Circuit Court in Jackson to five years in prison but suspended execution of sentence and placed him on supervised probation.

Keller, 27, was charged in April after having sex with a minor several times, law-enforcement officials said.

Keller pleaded guilty July 25 to statutory rape.

The 16-year-old victim told investigators she and Keller talked and shared photos on social media before agreeing to meet in person Jan. 22, according to a probable-cause statement filed by Cape Girardeau County Sheriff’s Department detective Jaime Holloway.

The victim said Keller picked her up from her residence in Jackson and took her to a nearby field, where they engaged in sex acts four times, Holloway wrote.

In online messages, Keller told the victim not to tell anyone about their relationship, saying, “Being a registered sex offender is worse than (being) convicted of manslaughter,” according to the statement.

A photo of Keller and the victim engaged in sex acts was included in their online correspondence, Holloway wrote.

On March 13, Keller told investigators he knew the victim, knew her to be underage and admitted to picking her up from her residence where she lived with her parents but denied he had sex with the victim, Holloway wrote.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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