Sex offender sentenced for raping a child for multiple years - East Idaho News
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Sex offender sentenced for raping a child for multiple years

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IDAHO FALLS – A repeat sex offender who ran from police for months was sentenced Monday for raping a child multiple times.

Deon Ellington Waynewood, 41, was sentenced to between eight and 25 years in prison by District Judge Dane Watkins Jr.

Waynewood was originally charged with three counts of felony sexual battery of a child, one count of felony lewd conduct with a child, and four enhancements which would have required Waynewood to be sentenced to the minimum possible sentence — 15 years in prison — for each sex abuse charge.

But nearly all of the charges and enhancements were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, where Waynewood agreed to plead guilty to one count of child sexual battery.

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Waynewood was arrested in 2019 after a victim reported in 2018 that he had sexually assaulted her multiple times over two years.

Waynewood was already a registered sex offender at the time of the 2018 assault after he was convicted in Colorado for sexual assault on a child in 2000.

In 2015, he was also convicted of enticement of children and unlawful access to schoolchildren, all misdemeanors. As part of his probation, he was supposed to have no contact with minors, according to court documents.

In December 2018, an Idaho Falls Police officer responded to a high school after a 16-year-old student reported that Waynewood had been sexually abusing her.

The victim stated she had been having panic attacks because of the abuse, so she told one of her friends what was happening, and the friend convinced her to report it.

The officer asked the victim to explain the abuse, to which she stated that for the last two years, Waynewood had been “forcing her to have sex with him.”

She told the officer that days before, she wasn’t feeling well, and Waynewood gave her marijuana to smoke and a pill telling her it would help with nausea. He then assaulted her.

The victim estimated that she had been assaulted more than 10 times but less than 100 times. She also told officers that she had been keeping the clothes she was wearing and the bedsheets she was assaulted on as evidence.

The victim detailed an incident in 2017, where Waynewood had grabbed her by the throat before shoving her down and assaulting her.

As the victim started to cry, “Deon stopped, and he tapped her knee and said that he was just kidding and to have a nice day,” according to court documents.

Officers requested a warrant for Waynewood for failure to register as a sex offender in January 2019, but Waynewood refused to talk to the police without a lawyer.

After testing the DNA on the bedsheets and clothing and comparing it to Waynewood’s DNA, he was arrested in April 2019 and booked into the Bonneville County Jail, where his bond was set to $500,000.

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Waynewood asked a judge to reduce his bail several times with Bonneville County prosecutors objecting every time. After a hearing in March 2020, Judge Watkins reduced bail to $150,000, which Waynewood posted.

He then went on the run, with the U.S. Marshals sending out alerts to be on the look for him.

Waynewood was eventually found by police in Arapahoe County, Colorado, in June 2021. The U.S. Marshal’s office arrested him shortly after a warrant was issued for his arrest. Despite a warrant holding no bail in Idaho, a Colorado court set bail at $10,000 that Waynewood posted shortly after.

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Waynewood did not attend a rescheduled jury trial, and Watkins signed a $750,000 bond bench warrant. The new warrant demanded Waynewood be brought back to Idaho Falls.

After another four months on the run, Waynewood was again caught by police in October 2021, this time in Maricopa County, Arizona.

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Waynewood arrived at the Bonneville County Jail after spending three months behind bars in Arizona.

Waynewood’s court hearings were repeatedly pushed back after he claimed he was a part of the The Moorish sovereign citizen movement and should not be charged under Idaho laws.

Waynewood’s bail was eventually forfeited.

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