One day before a jury trial was scheduled to start this week, a Trenton man pleaded guilty to one count of 1st-degree sexual abuse with a victim who was less than 14 years old.
Thirty-nine-year-old Steven W. Leivan appeared Monday in the Gentry County Circuit Court in Albany. Special Judge Corey Herron, a former Trenton attorney, gave Leivan a 15-year sentence with the Missouri Department of Corrections. The judge suspended the execution of the sentence and placed Leivan on five years of supervised probation.
Leivan had been arrested in 2020 by the Nodaway County Sheriff’s Office. At that time, he was charged in Nodaway County with first and second-degree child molestation involving two victims who were less than 12 years old. It was previously reported that the crimes dated back to 2015.
In court Monday, Nodaway County Prosecutor Tina Marie Dieter filed the amended complaint of felony 1st-degree sexual abuse to which Leivan entered his guilty plea. He will be required to register as a sex offender. The court case was moved last November on a change of venue to Gentry County.
