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"This is about stopping a predator who takes advantage of little girls," Kosciusko County Prosecutor Steve Hearn said in his final argument Tuesday afternoon.
Just short of two hours later, the 12 members of the jury in the trial of Christopher Smith returned to the courtroom with their verdicts: guilty in three of the four charges brought.
Smith, 34, of Warsaw, was found guilty of child molesting, a Class A felony; sexual misconduct with a minor, a Class B felony and sexual misconduct with a minor, a Class C felony. The jury decided he was not guilty of one other count of Class A felony child molesting.
Smith was convicted of Class A felony child molesting after the jury determined he had sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl. The first count of sexual misconduct with a minor, a Class B felony, stemmed from Smith touching a 13-year-old girl in an inappropriate sexual way. The Class C felony sexual misconduct with a minor charge resulted from Smith touching a 14-year-old girl in an inappropriate sexual manner.
Smith was found not guilty of the second count of Class A felony child molesting because the jury was not sure if the second instance of sexual intercourse occurred before or after the girl's 13th birthday.
With the convictions, Smith faces a maximum of 78 years in prison.
Before the jury was sent to deliberate, they heard the cross examination of one victim and the full testimony of Warsaw Police Department Detective Scott Whitaker as well as the defendant.
In his testimony, Smith told the jury that he paid one of the girls to babysit his children. He said nothing inappropriate happened and that the girls were lying about the molestation.
When Hearn asked if everyone who testified was lying, Smith replied, "Yes."
In the end, the jury believed the victims and returned with the three guilty verdicts.
After the verdicts were read, Kosciusko Circuit Court Judge Rex Reed revoked Smith's bond. Smith was immediately taken into custody by the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department and booked into the Kosciusko County Jail.
Smith will be sentenced May 25 at 10 a.m.
The conviction is not the first time Smith faced child molestation charges. In 200, Smith was arrested and stood trial for child molestation, but a jury found him not guilty of the charges.
