The girl told police that Jason Elsea repeatedly forced her to have sex with him. When Elsea learned she was pregnant, the girl told detectives, he forced her to take medication, including niacin and steroids, in a failed effort to abort the fetus.

BARTOW – A Lakeland man who impregnated a 14-year-old girl and forced her to swallow medication in an attempt to abort the pregnancy was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for sexual battery on a child under 18.

Jason Lamar Elsea, 35, entered his guilty plea in December without a plea agreement with prosecutors, which means there was no sentencing recommendation at that time. But during Thursday‘s hearing, Assistant State Attorney Ashley McCarthy requested that he be sentenced to life imprisonment.

In imposing the maximum sentence for the two counts of sexual battery, Circuit Judge William Sites told Elsea his actions in this case were monstrous.

"Your family members are telling me that you’re not a monster," he said, "and in their eyes, I’m sure you are not. I’m sure there is a lot of good, but I’ll tell you what I’ve told people before – the good you do is forgotten. You’re remembered by the bad that you do.

"What you did was one of the most horrible things that a person can do," Sites said. "In this case, the victim lives with the consequences for the rest of their life. Some people are able to go on and have productive lives, but a lot of people are not."

Elsea was arrested in October 2018, when the girl was six months pregnant. She had defied Elsea’s threats, according to the Lakeland police arrest affidavit, and had come forward to family members about the pregnancy. She told police she and Elsea had known about her condition early on, but they hadn’t told anyone.

According to the girl’s statement to police, Elsea repeatedly forced her to have sex with him over the previous year, often in a playhouse in her backyard. When Elsea learned she was pregnant, the girl told detectives, he forced her to take medication, including niacin and steroids, in a failed effort to abort the fetus.

When she finally reported that she was pregnant and she was at the doctor’s office, Elsea sent her text messages demanding that she say she had sex with a random student in the school band room, according to court documents.

During Thursday’s hearing, LPD Detective Brooke Osterhage testified that DNA testing after the baby’s birth confirmed that Elsea was the child’s father.

In a statement to the court Thursday, Elsea said he accepted responsibility for what he had done, but he also asked Sites to afford him a second chance.

"I am very remorseful for the family that I’ve lost, and I’m very remorseful for what my children have gone through," he said. "It’s hard for me to believe that what I’ve done has actually happened, but it has. I don’t want you to think, Your Honor, that I’m not trying to take responsibility for what has happened – that’s not the case.

"I know what I have done was a horrible decision, as well as a choice, but if I could be given a chance to prove myself … I will not disappoint this court," he said. "I want to be there for my children to show them that even though I’ve made a mistake in life, and even though I have fallen down, that I was allowed to get back up and try again."

In her testimony Thursday, the girl’s mother asked Sites to impose a life sentence.

"She’s almost 16 now and has a 1-year-old child," the woman said about her daughter. "She’s robbed of her childhood by Mr. Elsea, and I don’t think that’s right. It’s not fair to her. She’s a baby. I humbly ask that the court hand down a justified sentence of life."

Elsea has remained in custody at the Polk County Jail without bail since his arrest Oct. 25, 2018, according to jail records. Sites ordered that he would receive credit for the time he’s already served.

Suzie Schottelkotte can be reached at suzie.schottelkotte@theledger.com or 863-533-9070. Follow her on Twitter @southpolkscene.