Soldier With HIV Gets 15 Years for Having Unprotected Sex With 7

FT. BENNING, Ga. — A married soldier infected with the virus that causes AIDS was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison for having unprotected sex with seven women without disclosing his medical condition.

Army Spc. Raymond Humphries pleaded guilty to seven counts of aggravated assault, eight counts of adultery, four counts of sodomy and one count of willfully disobeying an order to use a condom and disclose his HIV infection to his sexual partners.

Humphries also was given a dishonorable discharge and ordered to forfeit military benefits.

Military officials said they were not aware of any similar case in the United States that had involved as many victims.

Prosecutors presented a series of increasingly distraught women, many single mothers, who said Humphries never told them he was married, never said he had tested positive for HIV in March 1995 and only wore a condom when they asked him to.

Three of the women testified that they had contracted HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, after having intercourse with Humphries. Three said they became pregnant.

Other women said their lives were ruined by knowing they had been exposed to the virus.

Humphries said he was suffering from denial after being diagnosed as infected with HIV.

Prosecutors portrayed Humphries as “a threat” who had continued to have unprotected sex with women as recently as a week before military proceedings against him began in January.

Humphries was to be immediately transferred to a prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan.