Jury finds convicted child molester guilty of rape

FREMONT — After just one day, a Sandusky County jury recently found a previously convicted child rape suspect guilty after he successfully appealed his 2024 rape conviction. On Jan. 21, at the end of a one-day trial, a panel of 12 jurors found Leroy A. Stratton Jr., 45, a former inmate at the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion, Ohio, guilty on one count of rape, a first-degree felony, according to Sandusky County Court of Common Pleas records. Stratton, of Fremont, was originally scheduled to be sentenced at 1 p.m. today, but that hearing was postponed to Feb. 4, according to the Sandusky County Clerk of Courts. Background Stratton was originally indicted by a Sandusky County grand jury in July 2023 on one count of rape, a first-degree felony, for raping a then-18-month-old child, according to court records. Stratton was later found guilty by a jury on the single charge of rape. On March 12, 2024, Sandusky County Common Pleas Court Judge Jon Ickes sentenced Stratton to serve life in prison without the possibility of parole. Shortly after Stratton's sentencing, he filed an appeal with the state's Sixth District Court of Appeals, arguing that his case was not properly ruled on due to a conflict of interest. Law enforcement first learned of the allegations against Stratton when the FBI reportedly found a video of the abuse being livestreamed on the dark web. Based on this information, the FBI handed the investigation over to Fremont police for further investigation. The lead detective on the case, Christian Ortolani, testified at trial as a prosecution witness. Before his trial, Stratton reportedly learned that Ortolani was Ickes' stepson, according to court documents. Since Stratton had some concerns about his possible sentence, Ickes postponed the plea hearing to the next day. The following day, Stratton appeared for his plea hearing but chose not to enter a plea. Stratton was reportedly afraid that "he would not get a fair decision" because Ortolani was Ickes' stepson, court records state. Despite Ickes' failure to recuse himself from the case, Stratton reportedly did not seek his removal through the Ohio Supreme Court by filing an "affidavit of disqualification." On appeal, judges ruled that Stratton's due process rights had been violated, and the case was reassigned to Sandusky County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeremiah Ray. Stratton's case was also cited among allegations of misconduct levied against Ickes in a 2025 review by a state board. The Ohio Board of Professional Conduct investigated a complaint that Ickes had referred to Stratton's case as the "baby (expletive) sucking case" among his court staffers. The board ruled that Ickes violated a rule relating to judicial conduct but imposed no immediate punishment — rather, he was given a suspended one-year law license suspension, meaning the sanction would not go into effect unless further misconduct occurred. Prior convictions Aside from his current case, this isn't the first time that Stratton has been charged with committing sex crimes against children. Stratton has a case that dates back to December 2001 in Sandusky County, where he was indicted on a single count of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a fourth-degree felony. He later entered into a plea deal, pleading guilty to a lesser count of attempted unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, a fifth-degree felony, according to court records. On June 12, 2002, Ray sentenced Stratton to serve three months in the Sandusky County Jail and five years of probation. Stratton also has a criminal conviction in St. Joseph, Indiana, for child molesting, a class C felony, according to Indiana court records. On April 13, 2011, an Indiana judge sentenced Stratton to serve four years in prison. It was unclear where he was incarcerated or whether he had to serve the full term. Stratton is also listed as a sex offender on Florida's Sexual Offender and Predator Registry database.