A Florida man was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Friday for failing to disclose his HIV-positive status to at least two women he had sex with.
Law enforcement began investigating Rasheem Ikey Bodiford, 27, in June 2017, after a woman said she tested positive for HIV and identified him as her last sexual partner. Their investigation uncovered that Bodiford had sex with the two women from September 2016 to October 2017—and had lied about his status to one of them, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Bodiford reportedly admitted to knowing about his HIV-positive status since September 2016. The woman who contacted police said she saw Bodiford had HIV medication but he claimed he was selling the drug for his uncle, the news outlet reported.
In a statement issued to the News Journal, State Attorney Bill Eddins said Bodiford was convicted of three felony counts of communicating HIV to another. Eddins explained that Bodiford’s crimes didn’t score high enough under Florida’s criminal punishment criteria to warrant a state prison sentence.
As a result, Eddins said a jury had to find that Bodiford posed a danger to the public—which they did in April. The prosecutor noted that the public dangerousness hearing was one of the first for this type of crime in Florida.
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[Featured image: Rasheem Ikey Bodiford/Escambia County Jail]
