Pennsylvania Man Sentenced to 32 Years for Kidnapping and Sexual Assault

ASHLAND, Ky. — A Parkersburg, Penn., man, Nathan Thomas Welch, 53, was sentenced on Monday, to 384 months in federal prison, by U.S. District Judge David Bunning, after previously being convicted of kidnapping and sexual assault.           

According to testimony at his trial, on July 10, 2020 (and the early hours of July 11, 2020), Welch and Charles Glorioso, 53, of Portsmouth, Ohio, kidnapped a woman at knifepoint.  The victim was driving the two men, in her vehicle, from Portsmouth, into Greenup County, Kentucky.  There, the victim testified, both men physically and sexually assaulted her, until she was allowed to leave, when she traveled back across the river on foot.  The incident was reported to police and she was transported to the hospital, for treatment of multiple injuries sustained during the assault.  Later, where the assault took place in Greenup County, officers located the victim’s abandoned vehicle, her belt, shoe, and sandal, as well as the knife used during the kidnapping, all in or near the vehicle.

Welch was convicted by a federal jury in December 2021.  Glorioso was convicted by a federal jury, in March 2022, and is scheduled to be sentenced in June 2022.

Under federal law, Welch must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence.  Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for five years.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Louisville Field Office; Col. Phillip Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police; and Chief Debby Brewer, Portsmouth Police Department, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by FBI, KSP, the Portsmouth Police Department, and the Ohio Bureau of Investigation.  The United States was represented in the case by Assistant U.S. Attorney Francisco Villalobos.

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