Fulmer

A Butler man was sentenced Tuesday, Jan. 30, to prison time and ordered to register with state police as a sexually violent predator for the rest of his life after pleading guilty in two cases involving sexual abuse of a minor.

Steven A. Fulmer, 30, was sentenced in Butler County Common Pleas Court following a hearing in which he was found to be a sexually violent predator under the state’s Megan’s Law. He did not address the court before Judge Joseph Kubit imposed concurrent sentences in the two cases.

Fulmer was sentenced to 36 to 72 months in prison followed by 36 months of probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge of aggravated indecent assault of a person under 13 years old filed by Butler city police.

Between January 2013 and December 2014, he sexually assaulted a girl he was acquainted with who was between 7 and 9 years old, said Brenda Manno, a member of the state sexual offender assessment board.

Manno testified about a report she prepared that found Fulmer to have an unspecified paraphilic disorder, mental abnormality and personality disorder, and to be predatory.

A co-defendant, Heaven L. Wonderling, 37, of Carnegie, is facing intimidation and threats charges in that case.

According to police, Wonderling — months after Fulmer was arrested — asked the involved juvenile if Fulmer had ever assaulted her.

Police said Wonderling and a neighbor accused the juvenile of lying and tried to convince her the incident had not happened, and Wonderling threatened to kill the juvenile if she told anyone.

In Fulmer’s second case, he was sentenced to concurrently serve 3 to 6 months in prison followed by six months of probation after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of dissemination of explicit sexual material involving a minor filed by Butler Township police. In that case, he sent sexually explicit photos of himself to a 14-year-old girl he did not know in June 2022 on her phone through a social media application, Manno said.

In addition, he was given a concurrent sentence of time served to six months in prison for violating terms of the probation he was serving for a 2020 simple assault conviction.

During the sexually violent predator hearing, Manno said Fulmer pleaded guilty in 2015 to endangering the welfare of children and reckless endangerment charges for fondling an 11-year-old girl he was acquainted with. City police also filed charges in that case.

Manno said Fulmer didn’t participate in her evaluation of him, so she relies on his criminal history, a report from a board investigator and assessment of him conducted in December.

Fulmer has been incarcerated at Butler County Prison since August 2023.