After deliberating four hours Friday, a jury convicted an accused child rapist of a lesser crime.
Michael Skellenger, 29, could face eight to 12 years in prison for attempted aggravated child rape, attorneys said. He will be sentenced by Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz on Dec. 13.
Skellenger was originally arrested in 2014 on a charge of aggravated rape of a 2-year-old. During his four-day trial this week, prosecutor Leslie Longshore called family members, pediatricians, and law enforcement officials to dissect the state's investigation into the victim's rape allegations.
Skellenger's defense attorneys, meanwhile, argued law enforcement coerced his confession, and that pediatricians and several adult figures had "suggested" a false narrative of abuse of the child - one that she repeated again and again.
Under Times Free Press policy, alleged victims of sexual abuse are not named.
After listening to closing arguments Friday morning, jurors returned a verdict around 3 p.m. There was very little interaction in the courtroom. The victim's family members discussed the outcome with Longshore then filed out, one by one.
The victim's mother declined to comment.
One of Skellenger's defense attorneys, Brandy Spurgin-Floyd, said she was pleased jurors had "thoroughly considered" the evidence.
"Although we feel an acquital was appropriate," she said, "the verdict confirms that the evidence did not support a conviction on the crime the state charged."
During closing arguments, her co-counsel, Jonathan Wilson, stuck to three main points: Investigators never found physical evidence, never conducted a forensive interview with the child to clarify any possible trauma, and then coerced Skellenger into a confession that didn't match the allegations. The jury shouldn't convict Skellenger of aggravated rape of a child, because the state didn't prove that's what happened, he argued.
During her final approach to jurors, Longshore swiped at the defense's attempt to discredit a family member's testimony for not reporting the incident to police.
"How is she making a case if police aren't who she's calling?" she asked. "What she's doing is trying to figure out what happened to a 2 1/2 year old."
Then she turned her attention to Skellenger's interviews with law enforcement, where he said he didn't know what happened because he had had too much to drink.
Whereas the defense said the videos showed that Skellenger was distraught and confused and therefore not lying, Longshore said he remembered specific details a little too well to claim total memory loss.
"He remembers a whole lot," she said. "He remembers how many shots he had. And the kinds of shot glasses from Walmart. Oh my goodness, this may be the best memory I've ever heard of."
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow on Twitter @zackpeterson918.