HIV-positive Texas man gets 15 years in prison for infecting woman

(CBS/CBSDFW) FORT WORTH - A 42-year-old Texas man, Jimmy Billingsley, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for infecting a woman with HIV by having unprotected sex with her, despite being aware of his HIV-positive status.

According to CBS DFW, Billingsley pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury and elected to let a judge decide his punishment. He had faced a sentence ranging from probation to 20 years in prison.

Billingsley reportedly told detectives that despite being aware of his HIV-positive status since 2008, he had unprotected sex several times with a woman he met in 2009.

The woman discovered in late 2010 that she was also HIV-positive after a routine health exam and contacted police, CBS DFW reports. She told detectives that Billingsley was the only man with whom she had been intimate, and that he had pressured her repeatedly to have unprotected sex.

Billingsley reportedly testified during his sentencing hearing that he has had several sexual partners since his 2008 diagnosis and told none of them that he was HIV-positive.

"This defendant's intentional non-disclosure to numerous sex partners was egregious, dangerous, willful and malicious," said Assistant District Attorney Joshua Ross, CBS DFW reports.

"He is truly a snake in the grass. His sentence brings some justice to his known victim and provides a measure of protection for so many others."