Thrash was found guilty of 10 counts of child molestation during his trial last month, the station reported. The victim was not named, but testified in court that Thrash had molested her at least 15 times.
After just over an hour of deliberation, a Grant County jury convicted Nicholas Deon Thrash.
The girl’s grandmother told Indiana news station WISH-TV back in May 2017, when Thrash was initially charged, that he was someone the whole family knew and trusted.
“(The victim) was foremost in our mind during this case,” Grant County Prosecutor Jim Luttrull said. “We appreciate an enormous amount of people … who offered their assistance to the victim, for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and all the work they provided in the case.”
The girl’s mother is also facing charges relating to the case, which include neglect and aiding in child molesting and assisting a criminal, according to reports from Marion-based newspaper the Chronicle-Tribune.
The young girl’s mother reportedly discovered the pregnancy as her daughter was trying on dresses for a school dance, which is when she instructed her to say a classmate impregnated her, not the 34-year-old family friend. Some reports allege that Thrash was the boyfriend of the victim’s mother.
The Chronicle-Tribune reports that, in his testimony, Thrash said he did not deny that he was the father of the baby but maintained he never molested the victim. Instead, he claimed that the victim’s mother, his girlfriend Jennifer Lynn Hand, had inseminated the victim using his sperm.
Prosecutors told FOX59 that the girl, after having recently turned 11, gave birth to a boy in September 2017.
Thrash remained in the Grant County Jail as of Thursday.
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