Penngrove man sentenced after pleading no-contest to molesting two children

Nov. 23--A Penngrove man who molested a relative and another girl years ago was sentenced Thursday to two sentences totaling 24 years to life in state prison.

The sentences were handed down by Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Chris Honigsberg, after Randall Cover, 57, pleaded no contest in September to four counts of committing sex offenses against two children, the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office said in a news release. Cover will serve nine years before starting his 15 years to life sentence, Sonoma County Chief Deputy District Attorney Brian Staebell said in an email.

In 2013, an 11-year-old girl who was related to Cover reported that he had repeatedly molested her when she was 8. Rohnert Park detectives investigated the incident, but police said there was insufficient evidence to make an arrest.

Years later, in August 2017, a friend of the girl reported that she too had been molested by Cover when she would visit the girl's house. Rohnert Park detectives investigated the friend's report and reopened the case from 2013. Police eventually obtained sufficient evidence to arrest Cover on March 23, 2018.

Just before the trial started, Cover pleaded to committing lewd and lascivious acts against each victim, assault with intent to commit a lewd or lascivious act and engaging in an act of oral copulation with a child 10 ?years old or younger.

One girl said in a victim impact letter that was read aloud at Cover's sentencing hearing that he "ruined a huge part of (her) childhood and (her) life," the District Attorney's Office said.

The other girl's mother wrote in a letter that was read in court that her daughter "was just a wholesome little girl that Randall took advantage of. What he did is unforgivable, incomprehensible, and quite frankly, sickening."

Cover will be eligible for parole after serving about 19 years in prison, Staebell said in his email. If the Board of Parole Hearings releases him from prison, Cover will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, the district attorney's office said in its news release.

You can reach Staff Writer Chantelle Lee at 707-521-5337 or chantelle.lee@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ChantelleHLee.

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