A Tulsa County judge handed down two life sentences for a man convicted of raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl. Eric Douglas Farbes, Sr., 40, pleaded waived his right to a trial and pleaded guilty to two counts of child sex abuse. Tulsa County District Judge William Kellough ordered that Farbes serve two concurrent life sentences, one for each count, and mandated sex offender treatment.
The victim's mother notified police last April after she took her 11-year-old daughter to the doctor complaining of abdominal pain. When a physician determined that the child was 20 weeks pregnant and had conceived before her eleventh birthday, the girl told them that Farbes, a family friend, had sex with her on multiple occasions. She said that he threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone. Detective Kathy Still said the girl also has some learning disabilities and developmental delays which, in part, prevented her from reporting the abuse to authorities.
Still also said that during an interview with Farbes, he admitted to sexually abusing two other young girls as well. She says that in one case, the victim also conceived but miscarried. The other case, which occurred in Wagoner County, involved a relative of the Tulsa County victim. That charge was reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor.
In May, Farbes was placed on Tulsa's Most Wanted list, but was found later that day in the Wagoner County jail on unrelated charges. Farbes has prior convictions for armed robbery, DUI, and drug crimes. He has served six years in prison in the last eleven years (2002-2006, 2009-2010, and 2010-2011) and was to be on probation until 2019. Now, he will spend the rest of his life in prison as a sex offender.
Farbes was charged with violating Title 21 O.S. 843.5, which involves Abuse, Neglect, Exploitation, and Sexual Abuse of a Child. Subsection F of this statute follows:
F. Any parent or other person who shall willfully or maliciously engage in sexual abuse to a child under twelve (12) years of age shall, upon conviction, be punished by imprisonment in the custody of the Department of Corrections for not less than twenty-five (25) years nor more than life imprisonment, and by a fine of not less than Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00) nor more than Five Thousand Dollars ($5,000.00).
In Oklahoma, sexual abuse of a minor under 16 is prosecuted vigorously and penalized harshly. When the victim is a child younger than 12, penalties are even more severe and include lifetime imprisonment. With such weighty consequences involved, anyone facing prosecution in serious sex crime cases should find swift and experienced legal counsel. Click here to learn more or to find a sex crime defense lawyer in Oklahoma.
