A man was sentenced to life in prison and 20 years of probation after a mother caught the defendant in bed with her 9-year-old daughter, the defendant stabbed the mother with a knife, and he threatened deputies in an hours-long standoff.
Christopher Anthony Smith, 27, pleaded guilty back on April 13, prosecutors in Fayette County, Georgia, said on Friday.
The woman and her daughter lived with him starting in September 2022, authorities said. She arrived home from work on Nov. 6 to find Smith in bed naked with the child, who was also nude, authorities said.
“The child was frightened,” prosecutors said. “When the mother went to call 911, the Defendant became angry and took her phone away. She left the residence, and he went outside and forced her back inside.”
Smith lunged at the woman with a knife, and though she managed to move, he punctured her arm, authorities said.
Deputies responded to a neighbor’s phone call, arriving to find the woman. She pleaded with them to help her and her daughter get away from Smith.
“The child then came to the door shaking in fear,” authorities wrote. “Both mother and her daughter exited the residence.”
Smith threatened deputies with a butcher knife, threatening to kill anyone who stepped inside, according to prosecutors.
“The Defendant then barricaded himself in the home,” they wrote. “After several hours, law enforcement officers were able to remove the knife from the Defendant and take him into custody.”
Images on Smith’s phone showed he forced the child to perform oral sex on him, prosecutors said.
Charges were aggravated child molestation, child molestation, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, and sexual exploitation of children.
“The sentence was appropriate considering the Defendant’s violent attack on the mother and the child, his threat of attack on law enforcement officers and the fact that the child will most likely suffer the negative effects of the Defendant’s abuse for the rest of her life,” Deputy Chief Assistant District Attorney Warren Sellers said.
