A Maryland man was recently sentenced after he knowingly infected three women with HIV.

The man, identified as 37-year-old Rudolph Jericho Smith, was sentenced to 30 years in prison but he officially only has to serve 9 of those years.

After he serve his term, he will have to serve up to five years of probation.

Fox New Reports:

Prior to his sentencing, which came down from Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Julia A. Martz-Fisher, Smith entered an Alford plea to three counts of second-degree assault and three counts of knowingly attempting to transfer HIV in September. An Alford plea, as per the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office’s new release, “is a type of guilty plea, where the defendant does not formally admit guilt but acknowledges that the State has sufficient evidence to convict them.”

An investigation into Smith began in 2017 when separate women told officials that they believed Smith had infected them with HIV.

Investigators spent “considerable time” during the investigation attempting to find out if Smith was HIV positive and if he was aware of his HIV positive status, officials said.

Eventually, investigators obtained a warrant to collect a blood sample from Smith, ultimately revealing his HIV-positive status, according to the newspaper.

“It was eventually established that Rudolph Smith was aware that he was HIV-positive but continued to have unprotected sex with women without informing them of his status,” the news release states.

“While HIV is not what it was 15 years ago with effective treatments that now exist, these victims will be impacted by this defendant’s actions for the rest of their lives,” said State’s Attorney Charlie Smith in a statement.

This is such a horrible situation. We are thankful that he is off the streets and can not infect any other females with HIV for a while. Do y’all think the judge was too lenient for allowing him to only do 9 years or do you think that sentence was good enough? Let me know in the comments!

And now you’re officially in the KNOW!