Associated Press
TACOMA — The U.S. Justice Department says a 28-year-old man has been sentenced to eight years in prison and 20 years of supervised release for molesting a child.
U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes says Gary Wellman Jr., an enrolled member of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe who lives in Kingston, was sentenced Friday.
Wellman pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact in May.
Court records show Wellman was a close friend of the victim’s parents. Hayes says in October 2016, the victim told a relative that the abuse happened at the family’s home.
Hayes says the abuse started when the child was as young as 6 and that some of the abuse occurred on Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribal Trust land.
Charges against Wellman in Kitsap County in connection with abuse that happened off Tribal lands were resolved with the Friday sentencing for the federal charges.
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