KINGSTON — A Kingston man will serve eight years in prison for molesting a young child.
Gary Clyde Wellman Jr., 28, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Tacoma on Friday. Wellman Jr. will have 20 years of supervised release and register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.
Wellman Jr. pleaded guilty to abusive sexual contact in May 2017.
He was a close friend of the victim’s parents, who viewed Wellman Jr. as an uncle to their children, according to case records.
In October 2016, the victim told a trusted relative that Wellman Jr. had molested the child while he was visiting in the family’s home.
The abuse began when the child was as young as 6 or 7 years old.
Both Wellman Jr. and the child are members of the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, and some abuse occurred on tribal trust land.
Wellman Jr. has been in custody since his arrest in October 2016. He was charged in Kitsap County Superior Court in connection with the molestation that occurred off tribal lands.
Those charges were resolved, along with the federal charges Friday.
The FBI and the Port Gamble S’Klallam Department of Public Safety investigated the case.