Jury convicts Spokane man on 13 charges related to rape, molestation

A Spokane jury convicted a 49-year-old man last week of raping three young girls.

Jason Ayers was found guilty on 10 counts of child rape, two counts of child molestation and one count of assault. The jury agreed with prosecutors that Ayers engaged in a pattern of abuse and abused the trust of his victims as aggravating factors on all counts, according to Deric Martin, deputy prosecutor.

While Ayers was charged with assaults related to three girls, five women testified during his trial. Two of the women said they were assaulted by Ayers as children in Oregon.

The victims were all in Ayers’ sphere due to adult women with whom he was in relationships, according to court documents.

One victim said the assaults began in 2005, when she was 10 and continued for five years. Another victim said Ayers assaulted her starting in 2004 when she was 9. She said Ayers would make her watch him assault one of the other victims.

Another girl said she had a miscarriage at 15 years old after Ayers raped her, according to court documents. One woman said she was 5 when Ayers raped her.

The victims had told other adults in their lives about the abuse, and reports were made to Child Protective Services. Ayers wasn’t arrested until 2018.

Ayers sentencing is set for Nov. 9. He faces the possibility of life in prison.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct and clarify where the Spokesman-Review got information on the women’s assaults. The women described the attacks to police who filed that information in court documents.