Man Found Guilty of Raping, Molesting Little Cobb Girls

Patch Staff Report

Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds announced Thursday that a man has been sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 20 years after being convicted of raping and sodomizing two little girls.

Jurors took less than two hours on Thursday to convict George Henry Lawton, 27, of Jacksonville, Fla., on all 11 counts in the indictment. The trial began Monday with jury selection.

The acts occurred between 2009 and 2011 when the girls were 5 and 8 years old, and they took place at three south Cobb residences. One of the young victims testified during the trial.

Lawton was romantically involved with the girls’ mother.

“He has been convicted of repeatedly raping and sodomizing an 8-year-old girl, and sodomizing a girl who was no more than 5 years old,” Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring said during sentencing Thursday afternoon. “The evidence has shown that he cannot be trusted to be a free man.”

Boring prosecuted the case with Assistant District Attorney Courtney Mays.

Lawton was found guilty of rape, four counts of aggravated sodomy, four counts of aggravated child molestation, and two counts of child molestation.

Cobb Superior Court Judge Reuben M. Green then sentenced Lawton to two consecutive life sentences, plus 20 years to be served consecutively. He was sentenced as a recidivist, after the state presented evidence of several prior convictions.