A Florida man who had sex with multiple women without telling them he was HIV positive has been jailed for two years.
Volusia County Sheriff’s Office filed charges after an investigation was started when an ex-girlfriend of Gentry Burns, 27, came forward to report she believed she had contracted HIV while dating him in 2013.
The victim then attempted to contact other women who were dating Burns in an attempt to warn them.
Florida man 27-year-old Gentry Burns, (pictured), has been jailed for two years after sex with multiple women without telling them he was HIV positive. Two women contracted the virus
She also provided detectives with the names of other women she believed Burns might have infected.
Burns pleaded no contest to one count of uninformed HIV-infected sexual intercourse and was sentenced to two years in prison
Investigators then confirmed through medical records that Burns had been diagnosed HIV positive in January 2014.
Three women confirmed they dated and engaged in sexual activity with Burns without knowing he was HIV positive at the time.
At least two women were found to have contracted the disease. One was diagnosed HIV positive in 2017 after dating Burns in 2016.
Burns from Port Orange, Florida pleaded no contest to one count of uninformed HIV-infected sexual intercourse.
He was also sentenced to 12 months of probation upon his release.
‘It’s believed that Gentry Burns traveled extensively along the East Coast of the United States and may have had contact with additional victims in other states,’ sheriff officials said at the time Burns was charged, who was already in jail on unrelated charges.
Under Florida law, it is illegal for anyone who knows they have any of several sexually transmitted diseases to have sex with another person without informing them beforehand. Similar laws apply in 21 other states.
Other diseases under the law include gonorrhea, genital herpes simplex, chlamydia, nongonococcal urethritis (NGU), pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)/acute salpingitis, or syphilis.
Approximately 1.2 million people in the US have HIV, with about 13 percent of them unaware they have the disease.