A jury in Arizona handling the case regarding the sexual abuse charges against Minuteman co-founder Christopher Allen Simcox has been found guilty of molesting young girl but was acquitted him of engaging in sexual conduct with another girl.
Daily News reported that he was found guilty of molesting a five-year-old girl as well as showing her pornography. For the acquitted charges, it was about the more serious allegations of engaging in sexual conduct with a six-year-old girl.
The 55-year-old will be sentenced next month, on July 5. A molestation conviction carries 10 to 24 years in prison. It is yet to be decided how many years will the Minuteman, a border-watch group, co-founder will be spending behind bars.
Prosecutors said in the past that the allegations took place in 2012 for 11 months, which ended in May of 2013. As per the closing argument, a prosecutor mocked the claims of Simcox that the girls who said they were abused were just pressured by adults to claim the allegations.
Simcox represented himself at the trial. He continued to stand firm with his statement that he did not abuse the involved girls. He was arrested in 2013 after his career as an advocated for stricter immigration policies failed.
The case became stronger after two other female victims took the witness stand. A woman claimed that Simcox molested her when she was younger while another said that he tried to give her candy as a bribe so she would show him her genitals.
The Minuteman project started back in 2005 when illegal immigration was a huge national political issue. The volunteers of Minuteman were deployed along the southern border of the nation to watch out for illegal crossings. They then reported any incident to federal agents. The movement started to disintegrate after Simcox and his co-founder decided to part ways and started separate groups.
This is not the first time that Simcox had a run-in with the law. More than a decade ago, he was sentenced to two years of probation for misdemeanor convictions including carrying a concealed handgun at the Coronado National Memorial near the Arizona-Mexico border.
