photo by: Chris Conde/Journal-World

Cormick Gabriel Ferrell during a preliminary hearing on Feb. 24, 2023. Ferrell was ordered to stand trial on one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child between the ages of 14 and 16.

A Lawrence man who was originally charged with trafficking children for sex in exchange for rent entered a plea on Friday for a lesser crime, avoiding a trial.

The man, Cormick Gabriel Ferrell, 44, was facing two counts of aggravated human trafficking in one case and one count of aggravated indecent liberties with a child between the ages of 14 and 16 in another case, but both were resolved through a plea agreement with the state, according to court records. The trafficking charges were off-grid felonies that could have resulted in a life sentence if Ferrell had been convicted, as reported by the Journal-World.

Ferrell was alleged to have provided two children under the age of 14 to be used in forced labor, involuntary servitude or sexual gratification of another person between April 2014 and August 2017. The children were 7 and 6 years old when the crimes allegedly began. Then-Senior Assistant District Attorney Seth Brackman argued at a preliminary hearing in November 2021 that Ferrell allowed them to be assaulted in exchange for rent.

The aggravated indecent liberties charge is alleged to have occurred between August of 2016 and May of 2017, as reported by the Journal-World. During a preliminary hearing in February of 2023, the woman, now 20, testified that as a teenager she had accompanied Ferrell on a job he had undertaken in his handyman business. She said that she had fallen asleep on a couch while he worked and woke up to him touching her inappropriately. She said she then jumped up and ran out of the residence.

Ferrell was scheduled to go to trial on the charges on July 31 but resolved both cases by entering a plea of no contest on Friday to one count of aggravated sexual battery and two counts of aggravated endangerment of a child, according to court records.

The aggravated sexual battery charge is a mid-level felony with a maximum penalty of 136 months, or a little over 11 years, and is in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred between August of 2016 and May of 2017. The endangerment charges are low-level felonies and are in connection with an incident alleged between May 2014 and May 2018, according to charging documents. Ferrell will be required to register as a sex offender for 25 years, according to the agreement.

Ferrell is in custody at the Douglas County jail on $115,000 bond and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 1.