Raping 13-Year-Old Niece Earns Man Life Sentence

LAWRENCEVILLE, GA — After three days of testimony, a jury found Jose Aldana guilty of rape and child molestation for sexual contact with his 13-year-old niece while they lived in the same home in 2016. He was sentenced to life in jail with an additional 20 years for child molestation.

The abused girl told her boyfriend and a friend at school, that her uncle had touched her and raped her. She told authorities she was touched by her uncle on her breasts and her vaginal area since she was 10. This happened several times in various parts of her house when she was alone with him after school. When the girl told her mother Aldana had been touching her, she told the daughter to stop play fighting with him because her body was changing. The mother, however, did not kick the uncle out of the house or contact law enforcement.

Aldana admitted to police he grabbed the victim over an argument over his phone and going into her room.

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Testimony at trial was that the family needed to stay at Aldana's home for income for rent. After telling her mother, the girl was raped the victim in her bedroom. She described to waking up in the early morning hours and said Aldana pounced on her while naked. He held her arms down so she couldn’t move. She described how her body hurt the next day.

That's when the girl told her boyfriend and her friend and the criminal case began, in May of 2016. The girl's parents were evasive during questioning with law enforcement, police said. On the witness stand, upon being asked if she had been raped, the girl was silent for several moments but was able to say that Aldana had raped her. She felt pressured by her family because of the financial strain on the family with Aldana in jail.

She said she felt unsupported by her mother and did not believe that her mother would help her. She said she didn't want Aldana to get into trouble. During the mother’s testimony at trial she was still evasive; she denied that her family needed Aldana's money. She denied that the victimized girl had come to her with the allegations.

The State presented expert testimony from Anique Whitmore that in over 70 percent of sexual assault cases, the victim knows their offender.

Photo courtesy Gwinnett County Police Department