Cody KingThe testimony of six teenage boys in a Morgan County, Tenn., courtroom this week will put a serial sexual predator in prison for decades.
The boys were aged 11 to 14 when they were sexually assaulted by Cody Ryan King, of Wartburg, between June 2010 and December 2011.
Now aged 14 to 17, the six testified in open court this week about how King befriended, then seduced them. Jurors took just over an hour to convict King, now 24, of one count each of rape and attempted rape of a child, two counts each of aggravated sexual battery and sexual battery, and one count of attempted statutory rape.
“I can’t tell you how proud I was of all of them, because I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to talk about an experience like that in front of a room full of strangers,” said Alyson Kennedy, the 9th Judicial District assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Bob Edwards.
“They all said they wanted an opportunity to tell about what happened because they realized they hadn’t done anything wrong and they didn’t have anything to be embarrassed about,” Kennedy said.