The former music instructor of an Anaheim church was convicted Wednesday of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl and using a video camera to take up-skirt images of a 12-year-old girl.
David Elifar Verduzco, 35, a onetime member of the Agape House of Prayer’s “worship team,” is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 17. He faces up to 30 years to life in prison, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Jana Hoffmann.
Jurors convicted him of sexual penetration of a child 10 years or younger and three counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, all felonies, and two misdemeanor counts each of child annoyance and using a concealed device to record another without their consent. They also found true sentencing enhancements for substantial sexual conduct and multiple victims.
Verduzco used his fingers to sexually assault the 9-year-old girl he was babysitting at her Tustin home on Aug. 28, 2011, Hoffmann said.
Verduzco “was so close to (the victim’s) family they used to call him Uncle David,” Hoffmann told the jury. “They trusted him.”
Verduzco offered the girl money, which she refused, then reached under her nightgown and sexually assaulted her, Hoffmann said. When she objected, Verduzco “gives her an angry look, flips her off, and on the way out of the room, he threatens her not to tell anyone,” the prosecutor said.
Verduzco molested the 12-year-old victim, who was taking piano lessons from the defendant at the church, between January and September 2011, the prosecutor said.
Verduzco would “flirt” with the girl and “lean over and kiss her on the cheek,” and sometimes place his hand on her thigh, during lessons, according to Hoffmann.
While the girl played the piano, Verduzco used his foot to slip his phone under her skirt to make videos, the prosecutor said.
The girl’s mother saw her daughter exchanging text messages with Verduzco late one night, and reported her observations to the church pastor, Hoffmann said.
The text messages “say things like, ‘You’re beautiful,’ ‘I love you,”‘ he said. “It’s pretty clear this is not a conversation a grown man should have with a 12-year-old girl.”
The pastor kicked Verduzco out of the church, which prompted another parishioner to alert the 9-year-old girl’s family, Hoffmann said. When the girl was questioned about Verduzco, she revealed she had been sexually assaulted, the prosecutor said.
Verduzco admitted to investigators that he sexually assaulted the 9-year-old and was attracted to the 12-year-old, Hoffmann said.
Verduzco’s attorney, Lawrence Volk, maintained that his client was innocent of sexually assaulting the 9-year-old, but he conceded his client was guilty of charges related to the older girl.
He declined comment after the verdict.
— City News Service