Updated: Ballensky found guilty of raping girl in Butte, faces mandatory 100-year prison sentence

Jurors deliberated more than six hours over two days before determining Thursday that 60-year-old Gordon Duane Ballensky was guilty of raping a young girl in Butte.

Jurors found him not guilty of sexual assault for allegedly groping a younger girl in Butte, but the verdict on the first charge, because of the ages involved, carries a mandatory 100-year prison term in Montana with no chance of parole for the first 25 years.

A police officer approaches Gordon Duane Ballensky in state District Court in Butte on Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024, after a jury found Ballensky guilty of raping a young girl in Butte. Police cuffed him outside the courtroom and took him to jail.

MIKE SMITH

The jury of seven men and five women also found Ballensky guilty of tampering with evidence for deleting or destroying videos from electronic devices. That is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

District Judge Kurt Krueger will formally sentence Ballensky at a later date, but moments after the verdicts were read about noon Thursday, police officers frisked and cuffed Ballensky just outside the courtroom

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