LAS VEGAS (AP) — A man’s guilty plea in Las Vegas to felony child sex charges will send him to state prison ahead of any prosecution in Illinois in the death of his 6-year-old daughter, whose body was found in a garage in a St. Louis suburb, authorities said.
Jason Scott Quate, 36, faces 28-years-to-life following his guilty pleas earlier this month to sexual assault with a minor and two charges of lewdness with a child, prosecutor Samuel Martinez said Thursday.
Quate’s trial had been set to begin Monday. Instead, he will be sentenced on June 1. His court-appointed attorney, Randall Pike, didn’t immediately respond to messages.
Martinez called the plea and expected sentence an appropriate resolution to the case in Nevada.
Quate still faces murder and concealing homicidal death charges in St. Clair County, Illinois, court records show.
His arrest in June 2017 in Las Vegas drew intense attention after his wife, Elizabeth Odell-Quate, went to a domestic violence shelter and sought help from police.
She said Quate killed their youngest daughter in Illinois; brought her and their two other daughters to Las Vegas in 2016; forced her into prostitution; and sexually abused the girls, then ages 12 and 13.
Authorities found daughter Alysha’s decomposed body in the garage of a vacant home in Centreville, Illinois. They determined she died in 2014 from a head injury.
The other girls were taken into protective custody after police said they were found at a Las Vegas apartment showing signs of neglect. Martinez declined to provide information about them.
Elizabeth Odell-Quate was extradited to Illinois and pleaded guilty last August to concealing a homicidal death and a probation violation in a forgery case. Records show she is serving 30 months in Illinois state prison.
