ST. CHARLES, Mo. – A suburban St. Louis man infected with the virus that causes AIDS has been ordered to spend 20 years in prison for having unprotected sex with his girlfriend and another woman.
Aaron Sindelar, 29, was sentenced Friday on seven counts of recklessly risking another with HIV infection, a felony that carries a sentence up to life in prison. Five of the seven counts involved his girlfriend from St. Peters; the other two counts involved another St. Charles County woman.
Sindelar entered an Alford plea, admitting no guilt but acknowledging that prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.
As part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to not press charges relating to a third St. Charles County woman that they say Sindelar exposed to the virus.
Authorities believe Sindelar exposed a fourth woman – a St. Louis Countian – but have not charged him in that case.
Each of the women has tested negative to the virus.
Authorities have said Sindelar began having unprotected sex with his girlfriend shortly after he got out of prison for second-degree burglary, even though he has known since 2002 that he is HIV positive.
Identified only by her initials at Friday’s sentencing, the 28-year-old girlfriend tearfully told the judge how Sindelar’s omission of truth had affected her and her 4-year-old daughter, who still asks why Sindelar can’t come over and play.
“I just wish he would have been honest with me,” the woman said. “I hurt so bad for him because I cared for him so much.”
The woman said later that she and Sindelar had known each other since childhood and dated for about four years after high school.
A Sindelar relative told her last April that Sindelar had HIV.
“I’ve been to the bars with him before and I’ve seen him go home with other women, and he’s told me about it afterwards,” she said.
There have been other cases in recent years in the St. Louis area where HIV-positive men were accused of having unprotected sex without divulging their infection.
In 2002, Robert O’Keefe of St. Louis County was sentenced to a year in jail after he admitted infecting his sex partner. The victim told police he had tested negative for HIV before a six-month relationship with O’Keefe and tested positive after their relationship ended.
About four years ago, Marshall Moss was placed on probation and fined $5,000 for exposing a woman to HIV without telling her of his condition.
And there was the case of Darnell “Boss Man” McGee, who was diagnosed HIV positive in 1992 but went on to have unprotected sex with 100 or so girls and young women. Health workers estimated at least 30 victims developed AIDS. He was shot to death in a 1997 robbery.