A 41-year-old man was convicted Tuesday of sexually assaulting a girl he is related to, starting when she was 4 years old.
Margarito Gomezdelacruz was convicted of six felony counts of sexually assaulting the girl in 2014 and 2018, according to court records. One felony count from 2012 was dismissed when jurors deadlocked on it.
Gomezdelacruz is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 18.
The defendant molested the girl at a park in Placentia when she was 4 years old, and again sexually assaulted her in a closet when she was 9 years old at their home in Santa Ana, police said in testimony from the defendant’s preliminary hearing.
The victim suffered some bleeding, alarming her mother enough to take steps to barricade the girl’s room at night to stop any attacks when she went to bed, police testified.