In October 2017, Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Richard Skelton told Cargle, “As you sit here right now, you were about to be sentenced with a sentencing range of 10 to 15. Be careful for what you wish for.”
Skelton emphasized Thursday that it wasn’t a so-called “trial tax” and that applauds attorneys who take cases to a jury, but that it was a “trial reality” that the judge heard things “he didn’t like.”
INITIAL REPORT:
The alleged pimp who was found guilty on charges including kidnapping, rape, and felonious assault for events that took place in late November 2016 will be sentenced today.
RELATED: Alleged pimp's kidnapping, rape, assault trial like 'plot of a movie'
James Cargle, 31, who is described as a drug dealer and pimp, led a plot to kidnap, assault and cage a woman and enlisted the help of other women in his plot, according to a prosecutor’s memorandum.
Cargle then turned against one of the women after the first victim escaped, leading to the second victim being beaten, raped and assaulted by co-defendants before jumping out of a trunk of a moving car, a Montgomery County Prosecutor's Office memo said.
RELATED: Man changes mind about trial on rape, kidnapping charges
Dayton police said on Nov. 27, 2016, Amy Hardin (formerly McMahan) was kidnapped, raped and assaulted by one man and two women who punched her and hit her with a blunt object. She was found on a Dayton city street after she fell from a moving car.
Cargle, who was to be sentenced to 10 to 15 years in a October 2017 plea deal, withdrew his guilty plea and changed his attorney. His trial began April 30.
On May 3, he was found guilty on three charges of kidnapping, one charge of rape and one count of felonious assault in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court.
Co-defendants Cassidy Lake and Jennifer Rice, both of whom pleaded guilty and testified against Cargle are awaiting sentencing.
RELATED: Alleged pimp trial: Woman tells of rape, beatings, being held in dog cage
This news outlet does not name rape victims, but in this case Hardin (then McMahan) gave permission to use her name and spoke out in an exclusive interview with our reporters following the attack.