A Franklin County jury on Tuesday handed a St. Clair man a 105-year prison sentence after convicting him of sexually assaulting a child, closing out a case that has been winding through the court system since 2019.
According to The Missourian, Michael Tourville was found guilty on four counts. Jurors convicted him of one count of first-degree attempted statutory sodomy of a victim younger than 12, two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy of a victim younger than 12, and one count of second-degree child molestation. Prosecutors say the charges date to 2019 and the case went to trial in February 2026.
Jury Verdict and Trial
The jury deliberated for about an hour and 10 minutes before returning guilty verdicts, the paper reported. That relatively short deliberation followed a multi-day trial in February, during which jurors heard testimony and reviewed evidence before reaching their decision.
Sentence and Legal Context
Tourville received a total sentence of 105 years in prison, a term prosecutors said reflected the seriousness of the offenses the jury found him guilty of. Under Missouri law, statutory sodomy and related child sex offenses are felony crimes that can carry decades-long prison exposure. The penalties for these offenses are outlined in Chapter 566 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri, which sets the statutes and sentencing ranges for sodomy and child molestation convictions, according to the Revisor of Missouri Statutes.
Timeline and Next Steps
Court records and reporting indicate that Tourville was charged in 2019 and tried this February, with the judge imposing sentence on Tuesday at the Franklin County Judicial Center in Union. In Missouri felony cases, defendants typically have the option to appeal convictions to the Missouri Court of Appeals, and defense attorneys often weigh post-verdict motions as the next step after a jury trial.
Why This Matters
The sentence brings a multi-year criminal investigation to a close for Franklin County prosecutors and locks in long-term consequences for the defendant, whose prison term stretches over a century. For St. Clair and the wider community, the verdict and lengthy sentence highlight how local courts handle crimes against children and the kind of prison time those convictions can trigger.
