Man pleads guilty to 2007 second-degree statutory rape

COLUMBIA — A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree statutory rape in a 2007 case involving a 13-year-old Columbia girl.

Matthew McMillian of Sullivan received a seven-year sentence — the highest possible penalty for the charge — as part of a plea agreement with the state. He will start serving the sentence immediately.

According to previous Missourian reporting, police said the suspect met the victim in June 2007 on hotornot.com, a singles Web site. Police said that on July 28, 2007, a Columbia officer discovered the two in the closed parking lot of Stephens Lake Park and believed there was more illicit behavior taking place than what he was told by the pair.

McMillian was then arrested and charged with a number of crimes, including first-degree statutory rape and first-degree statutory sodomy.

But another arrest prevented his prosecution in Boone County for another two years.

Sometime after being released on bond from the Boone County Jail, McMillian was arrested in Illinois for a separate incident in Will County, Ill., and was convicted of sexual assault.

He proceeded to serve his sentence in Illinois for the sexual assault before being extradited back to Missouri in 2009 to face the charges in the Stephens Lake Park case.

Monday’s plea agreement means that the original charges were amended to one charge of second-degree statutory rape.

Under Missouri law, a person commits second-degree statutory rape if they are older than 20 and have sexual intercourse with someone younger than 17.