Another Dover airman pleads guilty to raping a child

Adam Duvernay | The News Journal

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A Dover Air Force Base reservist has pleaded guilty to raping and impregnating a child.

Staff Sgt. Byron White pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts of third-degree rape in advance of a trial that was set to begin this week. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 13.

White, 34, is the fourth Dover Air Force Base airman in recent history to plead guilty to charges related to raping a teenager. White's victim was 13 when he first raped her.

Children under the age of 16 cannot consent to sex in Delaware.

White originally was charged with nine counts of third-degree rape and continuous sexual abuse. Investigators learned through Facebook messages that White and the girl had sex at least nine times.

The Division of Family Services got a tip through its 24-hour hotline about the child's abuse, including the fact she was pregnant, police said. State police were told Dec. 19.

The teenager told investigators she would sneak over to White's house on the west of the town of Woodside while her guardian slept. He told investigators he knew she was pregnant.

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White was a reserve loadmaster with the 709th Airlift Squadron, 512th Airlift Wing, an Air Force Reserve Command unit located at the air base. He's had active and non-active status during the time period of the allegations, according to the U.S. Air Force.

He had been listed as a staff member for Delaware Aerospace Education Foundation, a nonprofit focused on educating children. His name since has been removed.

Child rape at Dover AFB

White is the latest airman from Dover Air Force Base to admit he raped a child since the first cases came to light in April 2017.

The first charges were levied against Airman First Class Dalian Washington and Airman First Class Akeem Beazer, who pleaded to raping the same 15-year-old girl on base.

The girl was a runaway in the grips of a pimp, according to court documents.

The airmen met the victim in September 2016 at a grocery store near the base where they found her crying and bruised, court documents said.

They brought her back to the base and had sex with her, according to court documents. The girl stayed at the barracks on and off for several months.

"I was taken advantage of by Woody," his victim wrote in a letter read to the court using Beazer's nickname. "I thought he loved me, but it was a joke."

Washington pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a child. His sex abuse and conspiracy charges were dropped. Beazer pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of a minor.

In November, police began investigating Airman First Class Zepplin Taylor-McGinness.

Police had found Taylor-McGinness with a 14-year-old runaway before November, but there was no evidence then a crime had taken place, according to Dover police spokesman Master Cpl. Mark Hoffman. Neither would admit they had sex, he said.

Taylor-McGinness and the girl had met on the dating app Tinder.

On Nov. 14, the Delmar runaway's guardian told a police officer she was at the Dover Country Club Apartments with Taylor-McGinness, according to court documents.

Police found them together again in November, but this time there was evidence of wrongdoing, though Hoffman wouldn't say what investigators found.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations interviewed Taylor-McGinness on Nov. 30, according to court documents. He admitted to having sex with her multiple times.

The U.S. Air Force turned the case over to the state and he was arrested in February.

He pleaded guilty to child endangerment and two counts of fourth-degree rape, a charge in Delaware related to sex with a child younger than 16. He originally was charged with four counts of second-degree rape and endangering a child by harboring a runaway.

He was sentenced on June 27 to one year in prison followed by probation.

The Associated Press Contributed to this article.

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Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 319-1855 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com.