Convicted serial rapist gets 35-year prison term

A Columbus man who had multiple previous rape convictions has been sentenced to 35 years in federal prison after admitting to taking a 7-year-old girl across state lines and sexually assaulting her.

Joseph Gaines, 42, pleaded guilty in November to taking a minor across state lines with intention of sexually abusing the victim and committing a new offense against a minor as a registered sex offender.

On Tuesday, Gaines was sentenced to 420 months, or 35 years, in prison.

According to court records, Gaines took the 7-year-old to numerous other states in July and August 2019. Gaines transported the child in the bunk of his tractor-trailer.

Gaines had been on parole from a 2005 conviction in Stark County for the sexual assault of a 13-year-old in 1998.

Gaines had also been convicted in 2000 in Florida for kidnapping a woman on the beach, placing a knife to her throat and telling her to come with him.

DNA also linked Gaines to at least two other sexual assaults, according to federal prosecutors. One occurred around the same time as the 1998 sexual assault and involved a 15-year-old girl. According to court records, Gaines had threatened the girl with a box cutter, forced her into a wooded area and assaulted her.

In 2002, a married couple walking on a beach in Florida were approached by Gaines, who had a weapon wrapped in a towel, court records state. Gaines forced the couple into an abandoned building, where he sexually assaulted the wife while forcing the husband to watch.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio Kenneth Parker said the multi-decade sentence is warranted for Gaines, calling him a “true predator.”

“Gaines spent much of the past 20 plus years — other than the times he was incarcerated — perpetrating dangerous sexual assaults,” Parker said. “This is the type of incorrigible conduct that prison walls are made for.” bbruner@dispatch.com bethany_bruner

“Gaines spent much of the past 20 plus years — other than the times he was incarcerated — perpetrating dangerous sexual assaults. This is the type of incorrigible conduct that prison walls are made for.” Kenneth Parker U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio