Georgia jury finds Fort Valley man guilty of child molestation in less than 30 minutes
A jury convicted a Fort Valley man on Friday of molesting two children between 2012 and 2013, prosecutors say.
Deshawn Mathis, 37, was found guilty by a Peach County jury of one count of aggravated child molestation, two counts of child molestation, and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes, according to District Attorney Anita Howard’s office for the Macon Judicial Circuit. The children were 5 and 6 years old at the time.
The victims, now teenagers, came forward during a family therapy session in 2023, according to testimony during the trial.
“These acts had been unknown among the girls until they made their separate statements during an unrelated family therapy session with their mother, who was undergoing a serious health issue, in 2023,” the district attorney’s office said.
The trial lasted a week and jurors deliberated for less than 30 minutes before they reached their decision, according to the district attorney’s office.
Howard said it took courage for the girls to testify “about the heinous acts committed upon them by someone they should have been able to trust to protect them.”
Mathis was not immediately sentenced as it was postponed at his request, prosecutors say. He faces a maximum sentence of life plus 70 years.
