A Cobb County man on trial for raping a friend’s daughter has been ordered to spend the rest of his life behind bars, officials said Thursday.
Judge Mary E. Staley sentenced 19-year-old Francisco Melendez to serve three consecutive life sentences.
Melendez was staying with a family in their apartment on Winterset Parkway in Marietta when he raped and sodomized their 9-year-old daughter, Kim Isaza, spokeswoman for the Cobb County district attorney said in a statement.
Just after midnight on Dec. 7, 2014, Melendez woke the child up, took her outside to the side of the apartment building and raped her.
Investigators said the girl immediately told her mother what happened and Marietta police were called.
A medical exam confirmed that the child was indeed raped, and Melendez was arrested.
During the trial’s closing arguments, prosecutor Hannah Palmquist pressed for a conviction, telling jurors the attack was a nightmare for the girl.
“But it wasn’t a dream – it wasn’t some fake monster under her bed,” Palmquist told the jurors. “This girl’s monster was real. And her nightmare doesn’t end until you say it does. Take this verdict form and tell her that her nightmare is over.”
The jury took just 40 minutes Wednesday to convict Melendez of kidnapping, rape, aggravated child molestation and aggravated sodomy, Isaza said.
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