A 57-year-old Atlanta man has been sentenced to life in prison for raping and molesting a friend’s 5-year-old daughter in 2004.
Warren Fambro was sentenced immediately after the Fulton County jury returned its verdict Thursday; he is not eligible for parole because of previous convictions.
According to testimony at trial, Fambro was taking care of the little girl while her mother was at work.
He was raping the child in her mother’s bed, where she had fallen asleep, when the mother walked in on the attack.
The mother spanked her daughter and did not report the attack to the police or child services.
But two years later, the Department of Family and Children services learned of the 2004 assault while investigating another incident involving the family.
Fambro was arrested almost immediately after a forensic interview with the girl.
In a subsequent investigation, authorities also learned Fambro had allegedly raped two women, one in 1988 and the other in 2001. While there were no convictions in those cases, the women still testified in the trial involving the attack on the girl.
The mother has already pleaded guilty to first degree cruelty to children. She was sentenced to 10 years probation, ordered to take parenting classes and was required to have mental health treatment.
This was the third time Fambro has been tried in Fulton Superior Court for the attack on the little girl.
The first time the case ended in a mistrial because 11 jurors said he was guilty while one voted to acquit. Fambro was convicted in the second trial but the verdict was reversed on appeal on the grounds that he had “ineffective assistance of counsel.”
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