Sex abuse conviction leads to multiple sentences

FAIRFIELD — A former Fairfield resident was sentenced to multiple 25-year sentences Monday after being convicted on sexual abuse charges.

Michael Alexander Coon, 29, appeared in District Court in Jefferson County and was sentenced on his criminal convictions of two counts of child sexual abuse and one count of child endangerment.

He found guilty as charged by a Jefferson County jury on Feb. 19.

According to the county attorney, the charges stemmed from Coon sexually abusing a minor girl when she was aged 6 and 7 starting in 2018.

Mr. Coon was sentenced to 25 years in prison on each count of sexual abuse, to run concurrently

to each other, but consecutively to a two-year term of incarceration for the charge of child endangerment, for a total sentence of 27 years in prison.

Under state law, Coon will be eligible for parole after serving 70 percent of his sex abuse sentence, provided he successfully completes the Department of Corrections Sex Offender Treatment Program.

Coon also will be subject to a lifetime special parole for sex offenders and placed on the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.

Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding said the state urged the court to impose a lengthy prison sentence on Coon since the abuse was shown to be continuous in nature over a substantial period of time against a very young girl.

“During the course of the investigation, Mr. Coon made statements to the investigating officer that he had himself been the victim of serious sexual abuse when he was a young child,” Moulding said. “Mr. Coon’s perpetuation of the cycle of abuse makes this case all the more tragic. Hopefully Mr. Coon can obtain treatment for his predilections during the course of his sentence, so that if and when he is eventually released from prison, no more children fall prey to his illicit impulses.”