CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Suspect pleads to child sex in Colquitt County, convicted by jury in Spalding County

Moultrie Observer - 3/15/2019

March 15-- Mar. 15--MOULTRIE, Ga. -- A former Colquitt County man sentenced earlier this year in a child molestation case here has received additional prison time after he was found guilty in a similar case in another jurisdiction.

Bret Alan Smith was sentenced on Feb. 6 to serve 30 years in state prison after a trial of several days in Griffin.

Spalding County Superior Court Judge Robert M. Crawford also sentenced Smith, 35, to 20-year concurrent sentences on counts of child molestation and a felony cruelty to children charge.

Smith was indicted in June 2016 with those charges, a second child molestation charge and a misdemeanor charge of cruelty to children.

Crawford tossed out the misdemeanor child cruelty count, and the first child molestation charge was merged with the second.

As was the case with the Colquitt County case, Smith was accused in the indictment with the sexual abuse of an underage female relative, according to a Colquitt County Sheriff's Office investigator who attended the trial in Spalding County.

Smith pleaded guilty on Jan. 29 to one count each child molestation and aggravated child molestation in Colquitt County.

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dismissed charges of child molestation and incest.

According to Colquitt County Superior Court documents, Smith was accused in the indictment of having molesting an underage female relative.

Superior Court Judge Harry Jay Altman sentenced Smith to serve four years in prison on the child molestation conviction, with six years to serve on probation and a $2,000 fine.

Altman sentenced Smith to serve eight years on probation on the aggravated child molestation charge, concurrent with the other sentence.

Smith also was ordered to serve 200 hours of community service work, to have no contact with the victim in the case and other sex-offender special conditions. That included prohibitions on having contact with minors, dating or marrying anyone who has minor children, possession of or viewing pornography, and to complete a sex-offender treatment program.

___

(c)2019 The Moultrie Observer (Moultrie, Ga.)

Visit The Moultrie Observer (Moultrie, Ga.) at www.moultrieobserver.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.