Caregiver gets life sentence for sexually abusing 9-year-old in Stillwater

 STILLWATER — A caregiver, who avoided a jury trial last week by pleading guilty to repeatedly sexually abusing a 9-year-old during an eight-month period in Stillwater, has been given a life sentence by Payne County Associate District Judge Michael Kulling.

   The judge ordered Robert Franklin Holbert, 25, to serve the first 35 years in prison followed by supervised probation for the rest of his life, court records show.

   Holbert has been jailed since his arrest on March 24 when police were notified of a child sexual abuse disclosure by a child at her school, who told a counselor she had sex with an adult male, according to an affidavit by Stillwater Police Detective Rachel Bruce.

   The child had made the initial disclosure to a mental health counselor on March 24 that the sex “occurred on a regular basis at night while Holbert was there to care for her,” and two younger children who were asleep, the affidavit said.

   She said that Holbert was the only adult at home alone with her and the other two children when she was abused, the affidavit said.

   In an interview at the Saville Child Advocacy Center, she “discussed Holbert making her promise not to tell or he would go to jail,” the affidavit said.

   “She also told (the forensic interviewer) that Holbert showed her pornography on his cellular phone, and they watched the (adult) pornography together on this device,” the affidavit said.

   At the Saville Center, the child had a medical examination conducted by a female nurse practitioner “where she disclosed Holbert had raped her on numerous occasions,” the affidavit said. The medical findings were diagnostic of sexual abuse and consistent with her disclosure, the affidavit said.