Fultz

HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man who pleaded guilty in May 2025 to sexually abusing a female child starting when she was 10 years old was sentenced Friday to 8 to 20 years in a state correctional institution.

Jerry Lee Fultz, 78, appeared alongside defense attorney Dan Kiss in Blair County Court. After pleading guilty to single felony counts of unlawful contact with a minor – sexual offenses and corruption of minors – defendant age 18 or above, as well as two felony counts each of aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child, Fultz was sentenced by Judge Louis C. Schmitt Jr. to 96 months to 240 months in a state correctional institution.

In addition to the prison sentence, Schmitt ordered Fultz to pay $1,250 in fines and undergo a period of 20 years of probation upon his release. Schmitt also ruled Fultz to be a sexually violent predator based upon an evaluation done by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board.

Kiss and Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Mays did not contest the evaluation’s findings and agreed to Schmitt’s ruling in a stipulation provided to the court.

Prior to handing down Fultz’s sentencing, Schmitt heard victim impact statements read aloud by a victim advocate. The victim and her family did not attend the proceedings.

The victim’s parents asked the court to impose the maximum possible sentence on Fultz, writing that “we trusted him with our children.” They wrote that they had viewed Fultz as a father figure but he “took advantage of our child.”

“To us, his age doesn’t matter,” the parents wrote. “He knew what he did was wrong.”

In her impact statement, the victim said she was a 10-year-old little girl when Fultz “first touched” her and she “didn’t understand” what was happening.

“He told me if I told anyone, he would hurt me and my family,” she wrote. Instead, the victim wrote a note to her school counselor because she didn’t think Fultz would be able to hurt them.

When making his sentencing recommendation, Mays told Schmitt that the victim had “looked at (Fultz) like a grandfather.”

Mays then pointed to the Sexual Offenders Assessment Board evaluation, saying the evaluator found Fultz’s “inability to maintain self control” noteworthy enough to mention in their report and concerned him in regards to Fultz’s chances of reoffending.

He said Fultz’s lack of a prior criminal history, willingness to resolve the case without going to trial and age were factored into his recommendation of a sentence of 8 years to 20 years’ imprisonment.

Kiss told Schmitt that if they were in federal court, there would be a reduction in Fultz’s mandatory sentence due to Fultz pleading guilty and not making the victim relive the trauma of the abuse through a trial. Kiss also argued that Fultz went about 70 years without committing a crime and “otherwise lived a praiseworthy life.”

He then called up Fultz’s younger brother Harold Fultz, who has been acting as Jerry Fultz’s caretaker along with his wife, to detail Jerry Fultz’s myriad medical problems. In addition to stage three liver disease, Harold Fultz said his brother was suffering from heart disease and various spine and back issues for which he has to take a laundry list of medications.

“His (brother’s) mental health and cognitive abilities have severely declined” in recent years, Harold Fultz said, adding that he isn’t able to manage his own affairs.

In regard to the offenses to which his brother has pleaded guilty, Harold Fultz said he has “never known him to do anything even remotely like this” and asked for a psychiatric evaluation be done because he was worried about Alzheimer’s disease. He then said he thought it would be highly unlikely for his brother to reoffend because of his medical issues.

When questioned by Mays, Harold Fultz confirmed he was not a medical doctor.

Kiss continued his recommendation argument by proposing “a different way to sentence” Fultz. He said Fultz would have to wait at the Blair County Prison until a bed opened at a state correctional institution.

However, the prison “cannot provide” the care Fultz needs, Kiss said, and he would die there before being transferred. He recommended Fultz serve 11.5 months to 23 months at the Blair County Prison on a weekend basis, while the other five days of the week would be spent on either probation or house arrest.

“Every single weekend he has to go back to jail, he has to relive it,” Kiss said.

Kiss told Schmitt he “would suggest it’s actually a harder punishment” because of the rules and regulations surrounding Fultz’s sex offender status.

“(Fultz) would also face the scarlet letter of the SVP,” Kiss said.

Mays opposed this recommendation, arguing that weekend sentences were used in cases involving offenses like DUIs.

“This type of offense requires a daily reminder,” Mays said. “The victim has a daily reminder.”

Fultz offered no comment before Schmitt handed down his sentence. He was given 48 hours to get his affairs in order and report to the Blair County Prison.

Fultz was initially charged with seven felony counts of indecent assault of a person less than 13 years of age; four felony counts each of unlawful contact with a minor – sexual offenses, corruption of minors and aggravated indecent assault; and two felony counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with a child along with a misdemeanor charge of indecent assault forcible compulsion.

On May 29, 2025, Fultz appeared in front of Senior Judge Daniel J. Milliron and pleaded guilty to the six felony offenses. Schmitt inherited the case following his election win and Milliron’s retirement.

The abuse surfaced in April 2021, when the victim spoke of being assaulted by Fultz on Saturdays when they went hunting in the woods of the family farm in Catharine Township and when they went to Fultz’s camp in Woodbury Township.

Police indicated that the family corroborated that the victim, beginning in September 2018 and until April 2021, spent nearly every Saturday with Fultz.

The victim told police that the first time Fultz assaulted her was in his truck on the farm, when he pulled her pants down and used his forearm to hold her down. She also described four similar incidents, including one where she said Fultz removed his pants and had her touch him.

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