HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Alexandria man convicted in January of raping an unconscious 14-year-old girl at an Antis Township motel during a set-up arranged through the man’s cousin was sentenced Friday to 21 to 47 years’ incarceration.

Donald Lennon Hetrick, 40, formerly of Williamsburg, who denied the allegations during trial, denied them again Friday when addressing Blair County President Judge Wade A. Kagarise.

“I feel like I was charged with these things and then fed to the wolves,” Hetrick told the judge.

Kagarise, who presided over the trial, rejected Hetrick’s position and handed down what First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith described as a strong sentence for abhorrent behavior.

“I applaud the judge for this sentence,” the prosecutor said. “I think it sends a message to this community that human trafficking is not going to be tolerated.”

Kagarise, in responding to Hetrick, described his crimes as extremely serious and detrimental to the community, with lasting effects on the victim.

“What you’ve done … I don’t get the sense that you’ve come to grips with it,” the judge said.

Hetrick was the first person to be tried before a Blair County jury for human trafficking and conspiracy to commit human trafficking, as defined by a state law enacted in 2014.

In a pre-sentence memorandum, defense attorney Scott Pletcher described Hetrick’s human trafficking charges as ill-fitting and said that such charges should be reserved “for loaded minivans of people who are truly trafficked by the cartels.”

Smith called that a stereotype.

“When you try to obtain a child for sex in exchange for money, that’s human trafficking and that’s what Mr. Hetrick did,” Smith said.

In addition to the human trafficking offenses, the jury convicted Hetrick of rape of an unconscious person, statutory sexual assault, sexual exploitation of children, unlawful contact with a minor, criminal use of a communications device and misdemeanor counts of corruptions of minors. The convictions make him a Tier III sex offender who will be required, for the rest of his life, to regularly register his address and related identification information with state police.

State police at Hollidaysburg arrested Hetrick in January 2023 after an investigation into events at the Comfort Suites during the Easter 2021 weekend. Both Hetrick and his cousin, Nikkia Beck, rented rooms at the motel where Beck’s daughter, 13, and a friend, 14, said they became inebriated from smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol with Hetrick.

In court Friday, Smith repeated several of the weekend text messages exchanged between Hetrick and Beck and presented at trial, where Hetrick sought Beck’s help in getting the 14-year-old girl to come to his room and engage in sex acts.

In those messages, Hetrick referenced the girl’s body and offered money if she would allow him to “do whatever” he wanted and if she would lie on the bed and let him “explore her.”

At trial, the now-17-year-old victim said that Beck became angry with her that weekend because of her intoxication. The teenager testified that Beck told her to find a ride home or return to Hetrick’s room.

In Hetrick’s room, the girl said she fell asleep and woke up with Hetrick on top of her and his hand inside her, then fell back asleep and awakened again with his body thrusting against hers.

Beck, who testified at Hetrick’s trial, has pending charges scheduled to be addressed in court in September.

Smith described Hetrick’s actions during the Easter 2021 weekend as premeditated and plotted.

“This is a case where he was 100 percent predatory,” Smith said when recommending sentences adding up to a minimum of 29.5 years.

Pletcher, who asked Kagarise to hand down a five-year sentence, said that while Hetrick’s charges are serious, his client — a former volunteer firefighter with a longtime work history and character references — presents no risk to the community.

Hetrick has a “zero” score for prior criminal history, the defense attorney said.

During the 18-plus months that passed after the Easter 2021 weekend until Hetrick’s arrest in January 2023, there were no additional incidents, Pletcher said.

Hetrick also told Kagarise that his convictions came from a jury that wasn’t attentive and didn’t care. Hetrick reported seeing one of the jurors asleep.

“And Ms. Smith put on a better show than my attorney,” he claimed.

Smith said Hetrick’s criticism of the jury wasn’t justified.

“No, that jury was attentive and did its job,” Smith said later. “They just brought out a unanimous verdict that Mr. Hetrick didn’t like.”

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