GUILTY!

Daniel L. Bignell Jr. was found guilty on three counts of first-degree felony rape after he entered an Alford plea Tues­day morn­ing in the Williams County Court of Com­mon Pleas.

That means he still says he’s inno­cent, but admits there’s enough evi­dence for a guilty ver­dict from a jury.

In Sep­tem­ber, the Williams County Sheriff’s Office arrested Bignell at his home in Mont­pe­lier and charged him with five counts of rape, two counts of attempted rape, three counts of kid­nap­ping and four counts of gross sex­ual impo­si­tion, all involv­ing under­age females from 2001 to 2010.

The trial started Mon­day after­noon and was set to resume Tues­day morn­ing, but the plea put an end to it.

The rape and kid­nap­ping with sex­ual moti­va­tion charges each carry a max­i­mum sen­tenced of life in prison. The gross sex­ual impo­si­tion charges carry a min­i­mum five-year prison sen­tence.

Bignell is locked behind bars at the Cor­rec­tions Cen­ter of North­west Ohio.

His sen­tenc­ing is now set for Jan­u­ary 8th when he will face up to 30 years behind bars.