Child rapist Yoder to get new trial, years after sentencing of 7 life terms

Judge Goodman sets aside guilty plea of confessed child rapist, claims Yoder lacked information
 
In April of 2016, Marcus Gerald Yoder was sentenced to seven consecutive life terms after earlier pleading guilty to four counts of rape and three counts of sodomy. On Friday, July 24, his guilty plea was set aside, and he will go to trial on the charges.
Jack Goodman, circuit judge, granted Yoder post-conviction relief, stating Yoder did not fully understand what he was doing when he pleaded guilty.
“The court finds (Yoder) lacked sufficient information and understanding of the facts and circumstances of his case at the time of his plea of guilty to make an adequately informed decision as to how to proceed,” Goodman wrote. “The court, therefore, concludes (Yoder’s) plea of guilty was not knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily made and must be set aside.”
Arguing for the state, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Wantuck argued that Yoder was not entitled to relief. In a 13-page reply to Yoder’s petition for relief, he wrote that Yoder was correctly advised by his attorney about the possibility of probation and the risk to making a plea.
“(Yoder) was well-informed of the risk of a plea,” Wantuck wrote. “What he got was clearly within the correct range of punishment, and what he got was clearly within the range that he was advised of. His counsel argued for probation on these offenses, and that was available to the judge legally. It was a longshot, given that he sodomized or raped a number of children and confessed to raping multiple children – the reality of the situation was that any mere jail time or fine would not be a likely or expected outcome in any Missouri court of which counsel is aware – where there is an admitted rape of multiple children.”
 Wantuck also argued that Yoder’s petition to plead guilty was correct, and all the documents and statements of facts in the plea supported the correct charge.
According to the probable cause statement in the case, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Yoder in 2013, when one of the victims reported the alleged abuse she suffered from him. The victim said she was molested by Yoder from Nov. 1, 1997, when she was seven, until May of 2001, when she was 11. She reported Yoder had intercourse with her on six different times between those dates. Another girl reported Yoder had intercourse with her repeatedly, beginning in 1995, when she was nine, until May of 2001, when she was about 15.
A male victim came forward and reported Yoder sodomized him in the summer of 1999; the victim was 11 at the time. Another male victim said Yoder attempted to sodomize him at about the same time; the victim was 10 at the time.
The detective who investigated the charges against Yoder reported, in each case involving the female victims, he interviewed a person who witnessed Yoder having intercourse with them. The detective also reported he interviewed “several” witnesses who heard Yoder confess to having sexual contact with each of the victims.
Following the setting aside of his guilty plea, Yoder was transferred from the South Central Correctional Facility in Licking to the Lawrence County Jail, where he is being held without bond.