A Vaiden man pleaded guilty of child molestation in Montgomery County Circuit Court Monday.
Justin Cooper, 30, of Vaiden pleaded guilty to two counts of molesting a child for lustful purposes in connection with incidents that occurred in Winona between December 15 and 18.
For county one, Cooper was sentenced to 15 years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with two years suspended and 13 to serve. On count two, Cooper received the same sentence to serve concurrently with count one’s sentence. He must also pay all court costs, fees, and assessments, and a fine of $1,000.
Cooper was represented by Public Defender Neil Marlow.
According to Captain Dan Herod, chief investigator for the Winona Police Department, he received a report that a four-year-old girl may have been the victim of a sexual assault, and through his investigation of the allegations, Cooper became a suspect.
“Two incidents occurred at a house on Montgomery Street in Winona,” Herod said. “[Cooper] became a suspect as a result of our investigation, and that led to us filing criminal charges against him.”
