A minor who was raped last year faced her attacker in county court Wednesday during the offender's sentencing.

Danny T. Nichols, 38, pleaded guilty in July to two felony counts of aggravated indecent assault and strangulation after a deal was reached between prosecutors and Nichols' lawyer, Joseph Smith.

On Wednesday, Common Pleas Judge William Shaffer accepted the plea deal and sentenced Nichols to 17½ to 45 years in state prison.

He received credit for 339 days he already served at the Butler County Prison since his arrest. As part of Nichols' sentencing, he must register as a lifetime sex offender.

“It's a lengthy sentence,” Smith said of Nichols' deal. “It shows my client's acceptance and takes responsibility.”

But before Shaffer imposed the sentence, the mother of the victim read statements written by her and her daughter. The Eagle does not identify victims of sexual assault.

“You mean nothing to me,” the preteen wrote to Nichols. “I won't miss you. I don't miss you. Every last bit of love and sympathy I once had for you is gone and will never return. Our memories are meaningless. They don't matter to me.”

The victim told Nichols that the weekend of sexual assaults she was forced to endure changed her.

“I am not an object and I will never let anyone treat me like that ever again,” the victim said and added that she had learned from the experience who she is, drawing strength from the “tragedy” as a learning experience.

“You didn't break me. You can't break me,” the child said. “You deserve every last second of your long sentence. I hate you.”

The victim's mother also made a statement in court. She recalled that Nichols had recovered from cancer around the time the victim was born, calling it a miracle.

“God gave you a second chance at life,” the mother said. “And this is what you did with that second chance. You call yourself a man of God. You are not a man. You are a disgusting human being.”

The mother noted that Nichols, who has a menorah tattooed on his hand, claimed to be a rabbi after taking online courses and a practicing Jew. Cantor Michal Gray-Shaffer with Congregation B'nai Abraham in Butler said she wasn't aware of any rabbi with that name.

“Are there individuals who have done this and call themselves rabbis? Of course. But they're not recognized by the mainstream seminaries, and they're not allowed in rabbinic societies,” she said.

Police initially sought Nichols on Dec. 2, 2018, for accusations that he strangled a minor. After his arrest Dec. 5, the victim told authorities that Nichols did more than choke her.

The abuse was so concentrated during the two-day period that the minor had difficulty recounting every detail, according to police documents.

The girl said during the interview with officials that on the night of Nov. 30, Nichols grabbed her and forced her into a closet.

He began choking the girl and she hit him. Nichols told the girl not to fight. He then grabbed the girl by the arm, took her into the living room downstairs and sexually assaulted her, according to the police report.

The victim's mother recalled during court Wednesday that her daughter said, “It was like he turned off his humanity. He wasn't there. I fought back. I hit him in the face a few times, but then he started choking me and I was afraid he was going to kill me, so I shut off my emotions.”

After the sentencing, the girl and mother collected themselves outside the courtroom. The mother explained that they were satisfied with the sentence because they didn't want to go through the ordeal of a trial.

The child soon turned her attention to other, lighter matters. The family had recently adopted a cat, whom they call “Wacko.” Showing pictures of the animal on her phone, the victim said the cat had survived the experience of being dazed before the family adopted it. The cat was in a room where a flashbang went off, she said.

The cat, the child explained, hadn't completely recovered from the traumatizing experience and often acted out. But the cat was getting better — they all were getting better, she said.

“Our family will heal,” the mother had told the court.

Danny Nichols