Fayette County, Georgia officials have sentenced 27-year-old Christopher Anthony Smith to life in prison for molesting a 9-year-old girl in 2022. According to Law And Crime, the deranged criminal also stabbed the victim’s mother with a knife and threatened police during an hours-long standoff.
The chilling incident occurred in November 2022, when the woman and her daughter began living with Smith. She arrived home from work Nov. 6 to find him lying in the bed naked with her daughter, who was also nude.
“The child was frightened,” prosecutors said. “When the mother went to call 911, the defendant became angry and took her phone away. She left the residence, and he went outside and forced her back inside.”
Then, Smith lunged at the woman with a knife, puncturing her arm in the process. A neighbor, who witnessed the dispute, reported the incident to deputies. They arrived to find the woman pleading with Smith to get away from her daughter.
At one point, the child came to the door “shaking in fear,” authorities said. “Both [the] mother and her daughter exited the residence.”
Things took a turn for the worse when Smith threatened deputies with a butcher knife and barricaded himself in the home, threatening to kill anyone who stepped inside. After several hours, officers were able to remove the knife from Smith and take him into custody.
Detective Taweyla Wilson of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. She searched the suspect’s phone to find graphic images that revealed he had forced the 9-year-old girl to perform oral sex.
Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Warren Sellers said he believed Smith’s harsh sentence was “appropriate” for his deplorable behavior.
“The sentence was appropriate considering the defendant’s violent attack, his threat of attack on law enforcement officers, and the fact that the child will most likely suffer the negative effects of the defendant’s abuse for the rest of her life,” he added.
Smith pleaded guilty to aggravated child molestation, false imprisonment, aggravated assault and sexual exploitation of children on April 13.
In addition to life in prison, the 27-year-old was slammed with 20 years of probation for committing the egregious crime.
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