A 57-year-old Irma man has been convicted on six felony counts related to a history of sexual conduct toward young girls. After hearing two days of testimony, a Lincoln County jury delibrated for five hours Wednesday afternoon before returning guilty verdicts on six of nine felony counts against Gary P. Ver Kilen.
Ver Kilen was charged in October 2016 with felony charges including two counts of child enticement and two counts of first degree sexual assault-sexual contact with person under age 13. The jury found him guilty of all four charges.
According to court records, a Lincoln County deputy was advised of the alleged incidents in June 2016. Two young females, ages 11 and 12, indicated the incidents had occurred in mid-May in rural Lincoln County, during which Ver Kilen reportedly had unwanted sexual contact with each of them during separate incidents.
Upon further investigation, investigators discovered a history of Ver Kilen making contact with juvenile females under the age of 18, dating back to 2013.
In a second case, which was consolidated into the trial, Ver Kilen was charged with two counts of stalking-victim under age 18, two counts of child enticement-sexual contact and one count of child enticement-expose genitals. Those incidents involve a 15-year-old girl in the city of Tomahawk in 2013, a nine-year-old girl in Irma in 2015 and a 16-year-old girl in the city of Tomahawk in 2016. Charges in that case were filed in January 2017.
The jury found Ver Kilen guilty on the stalking charges in that case.
Lincoln County Circuit Court Judge Robert Russell ordered a pre-sentence investigation. A sentencing date has not yet been set.