HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Alexandria man is facing a lengthy prison sentence after a Blair County jury rejected his version of a family outing and convicted him Wednesday of raping an unconscious 14-year-old girl at a local motel in 2021 during a setup arranged by the man’s cousin.

Donald Lennon Hetrick, 39, formerly of Williamsburg, showed no emotion in court as guilty verdicts were announced for each of the 10 charges in the county’s first human trafficking case to be presented to a jury.

First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith, who asked the jury in her closing for guilty verdicts, praised the jury for its conclusions.

“These results show that a Blair County jury won’t tolerate this kind of activity in their community,” the prosecutor said.

The jury, which Smith described as alert and attentive, rendered guilty verdicts about 90 minutes after being dismissed for deliberations.

In addition to a felony count of rape of unconscious person, the jury convicted Hetrick of additional felony counts human trafficking, criminal conspiracy to engage in human trafficking, statutory sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children unlawful contact with a minor/sexual offense, criminal use of a communications and of misdemeanor counts of corruption of minors.

President Judge Wade A. Kagarise scheduled sentencing for April 23 after completion of a presentence investigation. Kagarise also revoked Hetrick’s bail option after Smith reported the maximum penalty on human trafficking convictions is 20-to-40 years’ incarceration.

Hetrick has been in the county prison since his Jan. 11, 2023, arrest when his bail was set at $250,000 cash.

Defense attorney Scott Pletcher, who asked the jury in his closing to believe Hetrick’s detailed version of activities during the family outing, said after the trial that Hetrick wants to talk with him about appeal options.

“He already said, ‘Please come see me,'” Pletcher said.

Hetrick, who took the witness stand in his own defense, told the jury that it was his cousin, Nikkia Beck, who invited him to join her and her children for the staycation at the Comfort Suites during Easter weekend.

Hetrick said it was Beck’s daughter, then 13, who brought her 14-year-old friend who wasn’t supposed to stay overnight on Saturday.

And it was the daughter, Hetrick told the jury, who pleaded with him to let her friend stay another night at the motel by sleeping in his room.

Hetrick, on the witness stand, denied raping or having sex with the girl.

The girl, now 17, told the jury that she and Beck’s daughter were drinking and smoking marijuana in Hetrick’s room. Upon returning to Beck’s room, the girl said Beck became angry and told her to find a ride home or return to Hetrick’s room.

The girl, who described herself as very intoxicated, said she woke up with Hetrick on top of her and his hand inside her, then fell back asleep and awakened again when his body was thrusting against hers.

Smith, who told the jury they were free to convict Hetrick of all charges based on the girl’s testimony, also presented the jury with a series of text messages between Hetrick and Beck that state police at Hollidaysburg garnered from a cellphone search.

Within those messages, Hetrick repeatedly tells Beck of his interest in engaging in sexual activity with the girl and his willingness to pay money. He also asks Beck to “work her magic” to find a way to get the girl to come to his motel room.

Beck — also charged with human trafficking and related offenses — testified during trial and admitted to texting with Hetrick. She also admitted to becoming angry with the girl and telling her to find her own ride home.

The girl and Beck’s daughter, however, testified that Beck told the girl to find a ride or return to Hetrick’s room.

Hetrick told the jury that he didn’t create or send the messages and suggested that the girls, who had access to his phone, were responsible.

But Smith told the jury that makes no sense and pointed to one of the messages in which Hetrick spoke of performing oral sex on the girl, something he admitted to doing the previous night with Beck.

Smith also challenged Hetrick’s denial by pointing out that when testifying, he admitted to sending a text message to Beck on April 11 that started with the greeting: “Yo.” That was the same greeting used in an April 3 message from Hetrick to Beck.

“Those messages,” Smith told the jury in her closing, “explain why (Hetrick) doesn’t call for a ride for the girl, why he doesn’t give her a ride home … and they explain why Nikkia Beck kicks (the girl) out of her room in the first place.”

The victim, who testified Monday, wasn’t in the courtroom when the verdict was announced. While she returned to court on Tuesday when Hetrick started testifying, she left before he finished.

Pletcher asked the jury to consider that the victim displayed little emotion on the witness stand, something that Smith countered by arranging for forensic psychologist Barbara Ziv of Philadelphia to provide expert testimony on myths associated with reactions to rape.

The girl said her life has changed since that weekend, that she has become less social and that she is now enrolled in cyber school classes.

Smith praised the girl for testifying in court, something that’s always difficult for victims in a system that seems to put them on trial.

“But to prevent a predator from harming someone else, the act of coming forward and testifying is the way to do that,” Smith said.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.