A Brown County man who was found guilty of child molesting in April has been sentenced to serve nine years in prison.

A jury found Troy R. Mace, 21, guilty of Level 3 child molesting and Level 4 child molesting. Charges stem from two incidents in early 2016, in which Mace was accused of having intercourse and other sexual contact with a 12-year-old girl when he was 19.

On May 14, Mace was sentenced to to serve nine years in the Indiana Department of Corrections with eight years executed on the Level 3 child molesting count. He was sentenced to serve six years, all executed, in the DOC on the Level 4 felony count.

He will receive credit for 90 days already served in jail. Prosecutor Ted Adams requested that he go to jail until sentencing; he was booked in on April 27. Judge Judith Stewart originally had ordered him to be placed on home detention pending sentencing.

Mace will serve one year on probation after he is released from prison. He will be required to participate in the sex offender treatment program and have no contact with the victim or anyone in her household. He also will be required to register on the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry.

His request for an appeals lawyer was granted.

During Mace’s trial, public defenders Dan Reuter and Jacob Moore offered the defense that Mace didn’t know how old the girl was, and that he could reasonably think she was over 14.

The legal age of consent is 16 in Indiana, but believing a person is 14 can be used as a defense in child molestation cases. It is still a felony to have sexual relations with a 14 year old and a person could be charged with sexual misconduct with a minor for doing so, Prosecutor Ted Adams said.

The girl and her brother both testified that they had told Mace more than once that she was 12.