SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to raping two boys has died just several months into a 20-year prison sentence in South Carolina.
The South Carolina Department of Corrections says 75-year-old Wayland Yoder Brown died at a hospital June 8. The ex-priest had been imprisoned since his guilty plea last October.
The case against Brown originated in neighboring Georgia in 2016, when the Diocese of Savannah paid $4.5 million to settle a lawsuit by a man who said Brown molested him more than 30 years earlier. Evidence showed Brown committed several rapes in South Carolina, which had no statute of limitations to bar prosecution.
Solicitor Duffie Stone said he hopes prosecuting Brown before he died gave his victims “at least some measure of peace.”
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