SANDY LAKE TOWNSHIP — A judge on Wednesday sentenced a Sandy Lake Township man who admitted molesting two girls to 10 to 20 years in prison to keep a measure of control over him.

Terry M. Fry Jr., 26, of 5698 Sandy Lake Polk Road, pleaded guilty in March to two counts of aggravated indecent assault. Each count came with a mandatory sentence of 5 to 10 years in prison, and Fry’s family pleaded for the judge to have the sentences run concurrently – together – instead of consecutively – one after the other.

Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge John C. Reed said the decision whether to have the sentences run concurrently or consecutively was the only latitude he had in the case.

Reed said he would lose control of Fry after 10 years, if he issued concurrent sentences.

“I want to keep control over him for as long as possible,” Reed said.

Reed also deemed Fry a sexually violent predator, making his reporting requirements more strenuouse once he is released from prison.

Fry will have to report his whereabouts for life.

The victims are relatives of Fry’s, sisters who are now teenagers, state police said.

A police investigator said he was assigned to the case in December 2010 and interviewed the older girl. Child Advocacy Center of Akron Children’s Hospital, Youngstown, interviewed both girls.

The girls lived with Fry and other family members at the time – from March 2004 through May 2007 – because their mother was in prison.

Police gave this account:

After about a year of Fry treating the girls “nicely,” he became physically abusive, punching them, throwing them to the ground and slamming their faces into walls.

Fry then began to try to get the girls to touch him sexually, and would bribe them with false offers of money and promises that he would help get their mom out of jail.

When the assaults occurred, Fry often would make one girl stand in the hall while he assaulted the other.

The sexual abuse escalated over time.

Fry told the girls they “deserved” what he was doing to them because they were bad, and that “God made you for this.” He also threatened to kill them.

The older girl said she tried to tell two family members about the abuse, but they didn’t believe her.

Other family members eventually found out about the abuse, and Franklin police were notified.

The abuse stopped when the victims’ mother got out of prison.

Mercer County District Attorney Robert G. Kochems noted the girls were prepubescent at the time of the assaults.

“Despite his limited intellectual capacities, Mr. Fry needs a long prison sentence to protect the people of Pennsylvania,” Kochems said.

Defense attorney Michael J. Antkowiak, Franklin, presented evaluations of Fry showing he is mildly mentally retarded, and said he has reading and cognitive limitations.

“This is an absolutely horrible case for all of those concerned,” he said.

Fry’s mother, Maryann Vanwormer, said she doesn’t know what went wrong, but said her son is a “great kid.”

“He has always been there for me, and a lot of people, in a lot of ways,” she said.

“I’m asking you to take into consideration the person he really is,” said his father, Terry Fry Sr. “He does need some help.”

Fry Sr. and Stacy Fry, the defendant’s sister, both called Fry their best friend, and said they wanted him to return to his family as soon as possible.

“It’s hard to be without him,” Stacy Fry said.

Fry spoke of his desire to return to his family.

“I don’t want to be in there and something happens,” he said. “It would tear me apart.”

Although the state Department of Corrections will have the final say where Fry is housed, Reed recommended that he be imprisoned as close to Mercer County as possible, and that officials take into account Fry’s limited mental capacity and small physical size.

Fry was given credit for 22 days he has spent in jail.