Child molester gets life plus 40 years

TIFTON — Melissa Wood, forensic interviewer with the Patticake House, believes a recent conviction and sentencing of a child molester was a first.

“As far as I know it is the only one where we have gotten a life sentence in the case,” Wood said.

Last Friday, a Turner County jury deliberated less than 25 minutes before returning guilty verdicts on all three counts in the case of the State vs. Dewayne Moate. Moate was charged with two counts of child molestation and one count of rape. He was sentenced to 20 years on each of the child molestation charges and to life in prison without the possibility of parole on the rape charge, with the sentences to run consecutively.

Wood said the Patticake House was contacted by the Ashburn Police Department and she interviewed the 6-year-old victim on March 20, 2007. The incidents had happened approximately one month before Wood’s interview.

The victim was the 6-year-old daughter of Moate’s live-in girlfriend. Moate, originally from Worth County, was left in charge of the victim and her 2-year-old sister while his girlfriend drove her brother to Tifton one evening in February 2007. Moate was 21 at the time.

At the trial last week, testimony from Wood, along with the videotape of her interview with the victim, corroborated the victim’s in-court testimony. Also testifying at trial was the Sex Assault Nurse Examiner, Sheila Luke, from Tift Regional Medical Center. Luke’s medical examination revealed injuries to the child’s genitalia consistent with penetration.

“From the child’s first outcry, her story remained consistent,” Wood said. “She said the same thing in court she said in the interview.”

Before sentencing, Chief Judge Gary McCorvey noted that Moate had declined to accept responsibility for his actions, an act that he felt would have evidenced at least a start at rehabilitation and would have spared the child, now 7 years of age, from having to come to court to testify. McCorvey noted that the child, when testifying, had kept her hand beside her head on the side nearest the defendant, shielding her view of him, and noted that the child had been in therapy since the event.

Brad Pierce, assistant district attorney prosecuted the case. An Ashburn police officer and a detective also testified along with Wood, Luke, the victim and some members of the victim’s family.

Wood said the victim is doing well. “She will adjust,” said Wood, who spent time with the child during the trial.

Wood said her work with the Patticake House covers four counties and she has conducted over 500 interviews.

To contact reporter Jana Cone, call 382-4321, ext. 208.

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