A Marion County Jury returned with a responsible verdict Wednesday for an Ocala man who was accused of committing sexual abuse on a baby over a interval of a number of years.
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It took jurors lower than 45 minutes to search out now 34-year-old Frederick Lamar Hamilton responsible on eight felony prices, together with a number of counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a kid between 12 and 16 years of age.
Marion County deputies arrested Hamilton in October of 2020 after the sufferer’s mom reported the abuse.
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Based on court docket data, the sufferer informed investigators Hamilton had been doing “inappropriate issues” with them for about six years, beginning when the sufferer was simply 12 years outdated.
The sufferer described a number of sexual encounters with Hamilton that occurred on the sufferer’s own residence, at Hamilton’s house, and at a church in Ocala over which Hamilton presided.
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The data say the sufferer’s mom had a gathering with Hamilton roughly two weeks earlier than his arrest throughout which Hamilton admitted that he “struggled with homosexuality.”
In his personal interview with investigators, Hamilton admitted to sexually abusing the sufferer on three separate events.
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The case towards Hamilton additionally included statements from witnesses that supported the sufferer’s claims.
“Kids train us many things- resiliency being one,” Fifth Judicial Circuit State Lawyer William Gladson mentioned in an announcement following Hamilton’s responsible verdict. “The sufferer on this case not solely coped with the traumatic challenges of this insidious grownup making the most of them, however the sufferer persevered by way of to ensure Hamilton was held accountable for his repulsive crimes.”
Hamilton will likely be sentenced on a date that’s nonetheless to be decided.
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