For not telling his partners that he is infected with HIV and screwing bareback, HIV-positive Air Force sergeant and swinger David Gutierrez will spend the next eight years in a military prison.
On Wednesday, a military judge handed down the sentence, dishonorably discharged Gutierrez and stripped him of his rank, according to the Wichita Eagle. This means Gutierrez will lose the benefits that paid for his HIV medication.
During an emotional statement to the judge, the 43-year-old beggedGutierrez tearfully begged the court for mercy, the Eagle reported.Muldoon to not dishonorably discharge him so he could continue to
receive the benefits that pay for his medication for HIV. Such medicine
can cost $1,700 to $1,800 a month, a doctor testified earlier in the
case.
One of Gutierrez' lawyers, Maj. James Dorman, told [Lt. Col. William] Muldoon that "your
sentence today really can be a matter of life or death.... You can tell
he is scared. He's looking at his own mortality down the road."
"Your honor, I humbly stand here before you," Gutierrez told the court.
"I am not a perfect man, and I have made some mistakes."
He also apologized to everyone imaginable, including his sexual partners. "I am sincerely sorry from the bottom of my heart," Gutierrez said. "I know I cannot change the past as much as I wish I could."
Sympathy was in short supply for Gutierrez, a 20-year military man stationed at
McConnell Air Force Base, who had his own version of "don't ask,
don't tell" (but even when asked, didn't disclose his HIV-positive status, a diagnosis he received in 2007).
Muldoon, unswayed, found Gutierrez guilty of seven counts of aggravated assault, eight counts of adultery, one count
of disobeying an order and one count of indecent acts.
Several women testified at the trial. All said Gutierrez never told them
he is HIV-positive, and they never would have fooled around with Gutierrez had they known about his status. None of them have tested positive for the virus.
Stripping Gutierrez of his benefits -- and thus taking away the means to pay for his meds -- seems cold. But, as military prosecutors noted at trial, Gutierrez wasn't worried about how the women and men he was screwing around with would pay for their meds, had he infected them.
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