St. Louis County man convicted of killing disabled son now found guilty of molesting children

Aug. 4—CLAYTON — Dawan Ferguson, convicted last month of murdering his disabled 9-year-old son in 2003, was found guilty Wednesday of sexually abusing two girls over several years.

After a three-day trial, St. Louis County jurors found Ferguson, 49, guilty of two counts of statutory rape, two counts of statutory sodomy and child molestation. Prosecutors said he abused the children at different times between 2000 and 2013 and impregnated a 14-year-old girl. Prosecutors said paternity tests confirmed Ferguson was the child's father.

One of the victims, now 26, testified that as a child, she trusted Ferguson and thought of him as a mentor. She said he showed her pornography when she was a child to teach her about sex and that she gave birth to Ferguson's child when she was 16 years old after trying unsuccessfully to get an abortion. She said Ferguson made her wear a girdle and run up hills to conceal her weight gain.

She testified to having an abortion the second time he got her pregnant and that she didn't disclose the abuse for years because she didn't know it was abnormal. When she revealed to her 8-year-old daughter who the father was, the woman said, her daughter touched her hand and said, "He hurt you."

"And I hadn't felt more seen in my entire life than by a little child," the woman said.

Ferguson testified Wednesday, denying the sex abuse allegations and claiming the girl inseminated herself with a used condom.

The sex case came to the attention of prosecutors in 2019 after Ferguson's then-wife of 18 years filed for divorce, alleging that he abused two relatives for years and that he fathered a child by one of them.

Ferguson was convicted July 1 of killing his son, Christian Ferguson, who disappeared in 2003 and was never found. The jury rejected Ferguson's claim that his son was taken during a carjacking.

Christian had a rare disorder that prevented his body from processing protein. When he vanished, he couldn't walk or talk and would have died within 24 to 72 hours without medication. Ferguson will be sentenced later this month to life in prison without parole in that case.

Ferguson had for years denied involvement in his son's disappearance. He did not testify at last month's trial, but his defense had argued there was no evidence of murder.

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