Foster Dad Vance Baxter Sentenced In Child Sex Assaults

GREELEY, Colo. -- A longtime Weld County foster father has been sentenced on charges of sexual assault on children is his care.

Vance William Baxter, 44, of rural Briggsdale, was arrested last June.

On Wednesday, Baxter pleaded guilty to felony child abuse and sexual assault on a child, the Greeley Tribune reported. The plea bargain called for the district attoey's office to drop four counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in position of trust and a misdemeanor count of sexual assault.

Baxter will be sentenced in March to 20 years in prison on the child abuse charge and 10 years to life on sex offender intensive supervised probation for the sexual assault charge, as part of the plea agreement. He will be eligible for time off for good behavior while in prison, reducing his 20-year sentence.

The original arrest affidavit obtained by 7NEWS said the sexual assaults on children began in 1996 and continued until 2002.

One victim told a detective with the Weld County Sheriff's Office that in 1997, he was sleeping in his bunk bed in the basement when he was first molested by the defendant. He accused Baxter of performing oral sex on him as a boy, then making him masturbate the defendant. The arrest affidavit said this happened sometimes two to three times a week and sometimes every day.

The victim told the detective at one point he refused to cooperate, and Baxter said he would make the boy's day a "living hell," according to the affidavit.

The arrest affidavit said when the victim went away to college, he would retu on weekends and the same patte of molestation continued.

A second victim told the detective he would hear Baxter coming down the stairs and would wrap up as tight as he could in his blanket and roll up against the wall to get as far away as possible. He accused Baxter of watching him get dressed for bed and watching him take showers. He said he also heard Baxter molesting another child.

The third victim told an investigator that Baxter molested him when they were watching movies one night in 1996.

The three victims are now adults. In all, Baxter had 18 children -- seven of whom were adopted.

Baxter's wife told a Weld County detective she had no idea or suspicion that any of this was going on until it was reported to the sheriff's office, according to Baxter's arrest affidavit.