Smyrna Man Sentenced in Child Molestation Case

MARIETTA, GA -- A Smyrna man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after admitting he had repeatedly sexually assaulted a little girl.

On Thursday, Robert Enrique DeLeon, 52, pleaded guilty to sexual battery, child molestation, and cruelty to children.

Throughout 2009 and 2010, DeLeon perpetrated numerous sexual assaults against a 7-year-old girl at a residence on Alexander Street in Smyrna. The abuse was reported to police in 2014, and the child told investigators the assaults occurred “uncountable” times.

“It’s sad that in so many cases like these, even after a conviction, the defendant persists with the theory that the child is lying,” said ADA Susan Treadaway, who prosecuted the case. “But this plea today offered some closure because the defendant admitted, in his own words, not only that he perpetrated the acts against this girl, but also that he had sexually abused the child’s mother several years earlier, for which the statute of limitations has already passed.”

Cobb Superior Court Judge Adele Grubbs sentenced DeLeon to serve 15 years in prison without the possibility of parole. After he serves that time, DeLeon will be on sex-offender probation for the rest of his life.