On Sunday, December 30, 2018, a complaint was lodged by a concerned father. His six-year old daughter had just come to tell him she had been abused by a much older man, a man her family trusted. At the time, the victim\u2019s parents were not together, she initially came to her father and stepmother to speak out.<\/p>\n
Danny Lee Sharp was dating the child\u2019s grandmother, Connie Summerford, and at the time of the abuse, he was living in a van on Summerford\u2019s property.<\/p>\n
(The grandmother, Connie Summerford has now been charged with the sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12 and is awaiting trial.)<\/p>\n
The child was immediately taken to the Dekalb County Children\u2019s Advocacy Center and later underwent nine months of counseling to prepare her for court and for the rest of her life.<\/p>\n
Jackson County Assistant District Attorney Krystina Jackson represented the State and was assigned the case, along with Victim Service Officer Sheila Morris and Wilson, the Courthouse Facility dog, who never left her side, even when she was preparing for court and while on the stand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she walked in, I thought, \u2018It\u2019s you and me in this.\u2019 This was one of the first cases we had tried the past year that was like this. Most of them, the victim has already passed, and we are there to preserve their memory and seek justice for whatever was done to them. It was amazing to have the victim here with us,\u201d Jackson stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI appreciate everyone involved, and I appreciate the faith the family put in us. They trusted us with their child, and I can\u2019t put that into words. I also want to thank the jury for the hard decision they had to make.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sharp\u2019s trial began on February 14, 2022 and ran for four days. The victim, now nine years of age, was able to take the stand and speak out against Sharp, relaying to the court what happened to her, all while Wilson was beside her.<\/p>\n
On February 18, 2022, it took the jury around two hours to reach the verdict of guilty on all charges.
\nThe charges and sentencing were as follows:
\n\u2022 First degree sodomy of a child six years of age or less | Life without the possibility of parole
\n\u2022 Two counts of sexual abuse of a child under 12 years of age | 20 years in prison for each
\n\u2022 Two counts of enticing a child to enter a vehicle, house, etc. for immoral purposes | 10 years in prison for each, suspended, followed by three years\u2019 State probation after releases from other sentences. <\/p>\n
According to the official sentencing handed down by Circuit Judge John H. Graham, \u201cThe sentence in each case shall run consecutive to one another. In each case, Sharp is assessed all court costs, including a Crime Victim Compensation Assessment in the amount of $10,000 and reimbursement of the fees and expenses of his court-appointed attorneys.\u201d
\nThe child has completed all steps of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and in the future, should she need it, the Children\u2019s Advocacy Center will always be available to her until she reaches the age of 18 and for all non-offending family members.<\/p>\n
by Martha Smith<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Sunday, December 30, 2018, a complaint was lodged by a concerned father.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8100,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8099\/revisions\/8100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.theclarion.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}