Metro

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A former Claysburg man accused of raping a 15-year-old teenager — who he told police that he believed was in her 20s — entered no contests pleas Friday in Blair County court to indecent assault and three additional misdemeanors for a sentence of 18 months to five years’ incarceration, followed by five years’ probation.

Keith Robert Morse, 34, who has been in the county prison since his arrest on Dec. 24, 2023, in Greenfield Township, is expected to be released on a time-served sentence.

Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan accepted the negotiated plea, which allowed Morse to avoid a jury trial on all charges that included felony offenses of rape, statutory sexual assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, aggravated indecent assault and strangulation.

The district attorney’s office withdrew those charges in exchange for Morse’s pleas to indecent assault of a person less than 16, unlawful restraint, false imprisonment and luring of a child.

While the victim was in court on Friday, she presented no statement, but submitted a letter that Sullivan reviewed before he imposed the negotiated sentence.

Defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey said outside court that he was prepared to go to trial with Morse’s case. But Dickey also said he understood his client’s willingness to plead no contest to the select charges for a time-served sentence.

By pleading no contest, a defendant doesn’t admit guilt but acknowledges that there’s sufficient evidence for convictions.

Greenfield Township police arrested and charged Morse after being dispatched Dec. 24, 2023 to an apartment complex on the 700 block of Bedford Street, Claysburg, to make contact with a 15-year-old girl listed as a runaway in Freedom Township.

Police reported speaking with the girl who, upon seeing Morse smoking outside the apartment building, identified him as the man who raped her.

The girl told police that she had been dropped off at the apartment building to go to a relative’s apartment. While walking toward the relative’s apartment, she said Morse grabbed her and forced her into the bathroom of his apartment, where he raped her.

Morse told police that the girl showed up at his residence to hang out and finish decorating the Christmas tree. He admitted to police that they had engaged in sexual intercourse and claimed the girl told him she was in her 20s.

Morse’s bail, unchanged since his arrest, was $150,000 cash.

Sullivan also signed an order Friday requiring Morse to be evaluated by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

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