By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 58-year-old Alabaster man is being held in the Shelby County Jail on bonds totaling $20,000 after he was arrested and charged with felony sex charges involving a mentally disabled victim.

The Alabaster Police Department arrested Barry Wendell Oliver, who lists an address on Alabama 119 in Alabaster, on Oct. 23 and charged him with counts of second-degree rape and second-degree sodomy.

Oliver is the second suspect arrested on the charges by the Alabaster Police Department in the past few weeks, as officers arrested 67-year-old Montevallo resident Gregory Cox Jr. on Sept. 30 and charged him with the same felonies committed against the same victim.

Cox was released from the Shelby County Jail on Oct. 1 after posting a $20,000 bond.

According to both suspects’ arrest warrants, they allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse and deviate sexual intercourse with a victim “who was incapable of consent by reason of being mentally defective” between July 1 and July 31 of this year.

APD detective Josh Rauch said the department’s Criminal Investigation Division identified Oliver as a suspect in the crimes over the past several weeks, and said he didn’t expect any further arrests in the case.

As of Oct. 24, Oliver did not yet have a court hearing date set. Cox was set to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Oct. 24.