A 29-year-old Warner Robins man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after a Houston County jury found him guilty of molesting two young children who lived with him. Marquise Lavelle Howard was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of child molestation following a two-day trial in which jurors deliberated for only around 20 minutes before reaching their verdict.
According to WGXA, the case first drew law enforcement attention in 2024, when two children, then eight and five years old, disclosed that Howard, who was living with their mother as her boyfriend, had been touching them inappropriately. Both children were interviewed at the Crescent House Children’s Advocacy Center, where they disclosed the abuse during forensic interviews, per 41NBC.
Investigators say Howard tried to keep the abuse hidden even after the disclosures. He had been texting the older child and telling her not to tell her mother about what happened, the same report states. The Houston County Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Investigations Division handled the investigation into the allegations.
Contact With the Mother Led to More Charges
Howard’s efforts to control the situation reportedly did not stop once he was behind bars. While he was in custody awaiting trial, he continued contacting the children’s mother in an alleged attempt to influence her, resulting in additional charges that remain open, the outlet reports.
During the trial, the victims’ mother and both children testified consistently with what they had told law enforcement during the original investigation, according to the WGXA report. That consistency, paired with the forensic interviews conducted at Crescent House, appears to have shaped the jury’s swift verdict following the two-day proceeding.
Prosecutors Praise the Investigation and Verdict
District Attorney Eric Edwards praised the work that led to the conviction, commending investigator Bety Ondik’s thorough investigation, the forensic interviewing conducted by Crescent House Children’s Advocacy Center, and the efforts of Assistant District Attorneys Elizabeth McDaniel and Sandra Matson, the station’s report notes.
McDaniel, one of the prosecutors on the case, said the defendant will spend his life in prison. She added that prosecutors’ responsibility is to seek justice and hold responsible people accountable, according to the same account.
Howard will now serve the rest of his life behind bars for the convictions handed down Thursday, with the additional charges tied to his alleged contact with the children’s mother still pending.
