Silver Lake Man Gets 3 Years For Exposing Women To HIV
Posted
Michael Anderson-manderson@timesuniononline.com
A Silver Lake man will serve up to three years in jail after exposing multiple women to HIV.
Travis Spoor, 37, pleaded guilty to three level 6 felony counts of malicious mischief in three cases on June 9.
Police say Spoor failed to disclose the fact that he was HIV-positive to his sexual partners, including one time when he used a fake name.
Three years was the maximum time Spoor could get behind bars, based on the plea agreement.
Kosciusko Superior Court I Judge ?David Cates told Spoor on Thursday he was going to give him the maximum sentence.
“What you have done is one of the most incredibly selfish things I’ve ever seen,” Cates said.
On each count, Cates sentenced Spoor to two years in the Indiana Department of Corrections with one year suspended to be served consecutively, for a total of six years with three years suspended.
“I’ve given you the maximum I could within the plea agreement. I hope you don’t like it,” Cates said.
Spoor apologized for his actions and said he wanted to take his own life from the guilt he felt.
“I was dealing with issues and I didn’t know how to deal with them,” Spoor said. “Everything I have done, I feel so bad.”
Chief Deputy Prosector Katy Hampton read victim impact statements from two of Spoor’s victims.
“It still haunts me every day. I felt so numb I cried myself to that night, I thought my life was over,”?one letter read.
The first letter was from the first victim, who started a chain reaction of other women coming forward about Spoor.
“Do you realize the incredible strength it took for the first victim to come forward?” Cates asked.
“What a kind of person would knowingly spread a deadly disease?” asked the second victim in her letter. She referred to Spoor as a psychopath who lacked any moral code.
Spoor’s attorney, David Kolbe, said there was no excuse for what his client did. He argued Spoor was in a bad place. Spoor contracted the virus from someone who didn’t tell him, and then lost his arm in a farming accident, which sent him into a deep depression.
Spoor still faces seven felony counts in three other counties on similar charges.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in Allen County Superior Court IV on Aug. 2.
He is scheduled for a change of plea hearing in Wabash Circuit Court on Aug. 28, and a status conference in Marshall Superior Court I on Sept. 28.
Kolbe said he expects the Marshall County case to be settled by a plea agreement.
