A Hoschton man has been sentenced to a life prison term for the rape of a 9-year-old girl more than two years ago.
The Gwinnett County District Attorney's Office told the Gwinnett Daily Post the sentence was handed down to Anthony Lee Seitz, 33. The newspaper said Seitz must serve 35 years of the sentence behind bars without the possibility of parole; the remainder of the life sentence would be served on probation.
According to court testimony, Seitz lived with the victim, her brother and her mother in a trailer in Hoschton at the time of the crimes.
Seitz was arrested in November 2017 after a family friend reported a suspicious incident involving Seitz and the victim on the morning of Oct. 30, 2017.
The newspaper said the friend testified in court that the victim's mother had asked her to make sure the child got on the school bus that morning. She became concerned when Seitz and the girl did not emerge from the victim's bedroom. She walked in to find out what was going on and found them in what the newspaper called a compromising position.
Questioning led the girl to report she had been raped by Seitz five times. She told police she had not reported the abuse because she didn't want Seitz to get in trouble.
The newspaper said Seitz denied the abuse in court.
