LAS VEGAS (AP) – A man’s guilty plea in Las Vegas to felony child sex charges will send him to state prison ahead of any prosecution in Illinois in the death of his 6-year-old daughter, whose body was found in a garage in a St. Louis suburb, authorities said.
Jason Scott Quate, 36, faces 28-years-to-life following his guilty pleas earlier this month to sexual assault with a minor and two charges of lewdness with a child, prosecutor Samuel Martinez said Thursday.
Quate’s trial had been set to begin Monday. Instead, he will be sentenced June 1. His court-appointed attorney, Randall Pike, didn’t immediately respond to messages.
Martinez called the plea and expected sentence an appropriate resolution to the case in Nevada.
Quate still faces murder and concealing a homicidal death charges in St. Clair County, Illinois, court records show.
His arrest in June 2017 in Las Vegas drew intense attention after his wife, Elizabeth Odell-Quate, went to a domestic violence shelter and sought help from police.
She said Quate killed their youngest daughter in Illinois; brought her and their two other daughters to Las Vegas in 2016; forced her into prostitution; and sexually abused the girls, then ages 12 and 13.
Authorities found daughter Alysha’s decomposed body in the garage of a vacant home in Centreville, Illinois. They determined she died in 2014 from a head injury.
The other girls were taken into protective custody after police said they were found at a Las Vegas apartment showing signs of neglect. Martinez declined to provide information about them.
Elizabeth Odell-Quate was extradited to Illinois and pleaded guilty last August to concealing a homicidal death and a probation violation in a forgery case. Records show she is serving 30 months in Illinois state prison.
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