Franklin man convicted of human trafficking pleads guilty to rape, extortion

By BEA LEWIS, for THE LACONIA DAILY SUN

CONCORD — A former Franklin man previously convicted of selling a 14-year-old into prostitution for $1,000 pleaded guilty on Monday to sexually assaulting the girl and theft by extortion for stealing a truck and money from a man by threatening to report him to police for impregnating another underage girl.

William Shine, 35, who is already serving a 14 to 60-year prison term, received an additional 3 to 30-year sentence to be served consecutively, when he appeared before Judge Robert McNamara in Merrimack County Superior Court on Wednesday. He was also ordered to complete the Sexual Offender Program while incarcerated.

“This is the first good thing you have done,” the judge told Shine as he stood with his hands shackled to a belt around his waist, flanked by his two lawyers Caroline Brown and Zachary Bland.

“I think the prosecution has entered into a plea bargain that is fair to you and protects the victims from having to go through another trial,” he continued.

While acknowledging that Shine has a very long sentence in front of him, McNamara said, Shine’s decision to accept the terms of a negotiated plea kept the victims from having to endure the added trauma of testifying about the abuse at trial.

Accepting responsibility for his crimes is an important first step in making something of his life, McNamara said.

One of Shine’s victims urged the judge to impose the maximum sentence and mandate that the defendant not be offered the protection of the Special Housing Unit at the prison but rather be consigned to serve it in general population.

“Because what goes around comes around and you should get what is coming to you,” the young girl told Shine.

Earlier, County Victim Witness Advocate Karen Sotile read a statement from another girl Shine sexually abused.

“I never knew it would end this way, but I’m glad it did. I believe people can change and I hope you can,” it read.

On the theft by extortion charge, Shine was given a 10 to 20-year sentence, that will remain suspended on the condition of 40 years good behavior.

Assistant Merrimack County Attorney Kristin Vartanian said the agreement represented a global resolution and was in the best interest of justice and the victims. State and local police who investigated the case also supported the settlement, she told the judge.

The three girls the Shines victimized have since thanked O’Hickey for having the courage to contact police and work with them, saving them from more abuse.

On Wednesday one of the victims said without O’Hickey’s intervention “I would be dead.”

Under the terms of the plea deal the state agreed to drop or “nol pross” six other counts of aggravated felonious sexual assault, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of indecent exposure and lewdness and a misdemeanor sexual assault charge against three different victims.