SIDNEY – William Warfield of Sidney was sentenced to the maximum 11 year years in prison on a charge of rape in Shelby County Common Pleas Court Friday. He was also designated a Tier III sex offender requiring a lifetime of registering.

The 34-year-old Warfield, who is currently incarcerated in state prison on a weapons offense, was originally charged with five counts of rape committed against minor females as young as five years old.

According to online court records, Warfield is believed to have committed the offenses against minor girls aged five years, seven years, and two involving girls under the age of 13. One charge does not list an age but as a “female child victim”.

The offenses occurred between June 1, 2015, and Dec. 31, 2018.

Judge James Stevenson ruled Warfield to be a Tier III sex offender. He will be required to register with local authorities every 90 days for his lifetime. He is currently housed at the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s North Central Correctional Institution in Marion.

On Nov. 29, he was sentenced to one year in prison on a charge of attempted illegal use of firearms in a motor vehicle, a fifth-degree felony.

In 2015, Warfield pleaded guilty in the firearms case, but twice failed to appear for his sentencing and committed several probation violations.

In a related case, in early April, Geneva Ashcraft, 35, 614 Third Ave., was sentenced to 10 days in jail on a charge of attempted obstruction of justice, a first-degree misdemeanor. She was found guilty of attempting to conceal the whereabouts of Warfield, a wanted felon, while he was at her residence on Nov. 16.

She was ordered to serve five years on community control.

In an unrelated case, Ashcraft was indicted on a charge of theft, a fifth-degree felony, and accused of steal funds from the checking account of a disabled adult.