WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A Gibsonville man was sentenced to at least 22 years in prison after a Forsyth County jury convicted him of only one out of multiple sex offenses involving a 15-year-old girl, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.
Ernie Donnell Pinnix II, 43, had been on trial since last week on allegations that he sexually abused a girl from April 2013 through March 2015. He also was charged with abduction, accused of taking the girl from Mebane to South Carolina and New York without her mother’s permission.
The jury of 12 people deliberated more than 10 hours, starting Wednesday afternoon, before reaching a verdict just before 11 a.m. Friday. Jurors found Pinnix guilty of statutory rape based on allegations that he had sex with the girl between Jan. 3 and Jan. 19, 2014. The jury deadlocked on two other counts of statutory rape, leading Judge Susan Bray of Forsyth Superior Court to declare a mistrial on those charges.
The jury found Pinnix not guilty of the rest of the charges, which included multiple counts of statutory rape, statutory sex offense and taking indecent liberties with a minor.
Bray sentenced Pinnix to between 22 years and 11 months, and 32 years and six months in prison. She also ordered Pinnix to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.