A19-year-old man has been sentenced to five years in prison for having sex with a 13-year-old Mandan girl.

South Central District Judge Bruce Haskell sentenced Jamie George Schick to five years in prison for one count of gross sexual imposition and sentenced him to a suspended sentence of five years with five years of supervised probation on a second count of gross sexual imposition.

Schick was charged in July with the two counts of Class C felony gross sexual imposition for having sex with the girl in January and performing a sexual act on her in March, according to court documents.

The penalty for having sex with someone younger than 15 is a Class A felony for anyone more than four years older than the victim. However, during the last legislative session, the North Dakota Century Code was amended to make the penalty a Class C felony for anyone more than four years but less than five years older than a victim.

Schick is four years and 193 days older than his victim, according to court documents.

The maximum penalty for a Class Cfelony is five years in prison and $5,000 in fines.

Schick pleaded guilty to the charges on Nov. 3, and a presentence investigation was ordered.

Morton County State's Attorney Brian Grosinger recommended a sentence of five years with two years suspended on both counts, with the sentences to be served at the same time. Grosinger said he had a "bleak"opinion of Schick before reading the presentence investigation.

"There is nothing in the presentence investigation that would change my bleak opinion,"he said.

Robert Bolinske Jr., Schick's defense attorney, agreed that Schick needs to be punished for his crimes.

"Something has to happen to Jamie Schick, certainly," Bolinske said.

He said Schick entered Teen Challenge, a faith-based program to address addiction problems, on Jan. 11. Bolinske asked that Schick be allowed to finish the Teen Challenge program, then serve any prison time Haskell decided to impose.

Bolinske said the program could help Schick change his attitude.

"He's got to change a lot of things to stay out of this kind of trouble," he said.

Schick chose not to speak during the sentencing, but two members of Teen Challenge spoke on his behalf. Daniel Davenport and Justin Dietrich, both participants in Teen Challenge, said they have seen a change in Schick in the time he has been in the program.

While the presentence investigation indicated that Schick will continue to do what he wants, Davenport said Teen Challenge would help him overcome that problem.

Dietrich said he was at Teen Challenge the day Schick arrived. "And his attitude, it was, it was not good,"Dietrich said.

But Dietrich said he'd seen a change in Schick since he arrived. "Just his attitude, all around, has changed,"he said.

Haskell said he thinks Teen Challenge is an excellent program for some people, but he sees a difference between drug offenses, which landed Davenport and Dietrich in trouble, and sex offenses.

Haskell said Schick has been found to be of a moderate to high risk to commit more sex offenses by the presentence investigation. Teen Challenge is not a sex offender treatment program, Haskell said.

Haskell ordered Schick to be taken into custody immediately following the hearing and gave him credit for any time he spent in jail on the charges.

Schick also has two pending cases in which he is slated to make court appearances later this month. He is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing on forgery, attempted theft of property and theft of property charges on Thursday in Burleigh County, and a preliminary hearing for burglary and conspiracy to commit burglary charges on Feb. 26 in Morton County.

(Reach reporter Jenny Michael at 250-8225 or jenny.michael@;bismarcktribune.com.)