HOLLIDAYSBURG — A city man who fled to Louisiana to avoid being arrested for sexually abusing two children took a last-minute plea deal Tuesday on what was to be the first day of his jury trial in Blair County court.

Albert Otto Kuklo III, 39, pleaded guilty to 80 charges against him in exchange for a total sentence of 17 to 40 years’ incarceration, followed by 10 years’ supervision and 40 years’ probation.

Judge Jackie Bernard accepted the plea agreement negotiated by Kuklo’s attorney Interim Chief Public Defender Julia Burke, First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith and Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Mays.

Kuklo was immediately sentenced and returned to the Blair County Prison to await transfer to a state prison. He was also ordered to pay lab and court fees of more than $13,000.

Smith requested both supervision and probation, and for the two to run concurrently, so if Kuklo were to violate the terms of his supervision — which includes having no contact with the victims, owning a firearm, leaving Blair County’s jurisdiction and interacting with any form of pornography — he could be resentenced and recommitted.

“If he comes before (the judge) again, we can resentence him at the harshest sentence,” Smith said.

Kuklo will be required to undergo an evaluation by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board and will be required to register his address with state police for the rest of his life, Smith said.

Victim impact statements were read aloud by Smith, who said the victims were present in the courthouse but didn’t want to be in the same room as Kuklo.

The first victim wrote that Kuklo “destroyed me.” She will move on with her life, but “without you,” she wrote.

The second victim began her statement by calling Kuklo a “waste of space. … I hope you rot wherever you go, you piece of shit.”

The second victim’s grandfather also provided a statement, writing to Kuklo that “Karma got you and she ain’t done yet.”

Kuklo’s plea and sentencing concludes a yearslong police investigation and court case that began on Sept. 26, 2022, when a caller told authorities that a 12-year-old girl accused Kuklo of sexually assaulting her.

During a series of interviews, the victim said Kuklo sexually assaulted her from the time she was 5 years old, which was when he was released from prison. The first assaults were when the child lived in Schellsburg, Bedford County, the report states. He assaulted her again when she was 8 or 9 years old and additional assaults began after she turned 11 years old, when the family moved to Blair County, she told investigators.

During the interviews with the Children’s Advocacy Center, police learned of a second victim, an 11-year-old, when the family lived on the 100 block of Coin Drive in Claysburg in February 2022. The first victim told investigators that she witnessed Kuklo raping the other victim when she got home from school.

In November 2022, a Children’s Advocacy Center interview was conducted with the second victim, who said she was raped on numerous occassions by Kuklo when she briefly lived at the Coin Drive, Claysburg, residence. She said that if she and the other victim didn’t have sex with Kuklo, he took everything from them and only allowed them to go outside to go on the bus to school.

On Oct. 1, 2022, while Kuklo’s belongings were being moved from the attic to the basement, an assortment of sex toys and a suitcase of pink, white and blue children’s panties were found. When the family asked the older victim about the items, she stated “those are the bad toys,” court documents state.

DNA results for the underwear and sex toys linked Kuklo to the devices as well as the victims, police reported.

Kuklo fled the state after being tipped off about an arrest warrant in December 2023. He was taken into custody in New Orleans by the U.S. Marshals Service in April 2024 and was extradited back to Blair County, where he was held at the Blair County Prison on $2 million bail.

Kuklo originally faced 121 charges, but the plea agreement saw some charges merge with others.

In the end, Kuklo pleaded guilty to 18 felony counts each of rape of a child, indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age and sexual assault; 14 felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child; two felony counts of intimidate a witness/victim and incest; felony counts of rape, flight to avoid apprehension and intimidation. He also pleaded guilty to a number of misdemeanor counts, including indecent assault of a person less than 16 years of age and selling or furnishing alcohol to a minor.

Bernard and Smith clarified that the involuntary deviant sexual intercourse and rape of a child charges Kuklo pleaded guilty to would receive enhanced sentencing, with their maximum ranges increased from 20 years to 40 years, as they were statutory offenses.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.