Daytona Beach, FL – A 19-year-old Daytona Beach man could spend the next 60 years behind bars for having sex with a 12-year-old girl on Christmas.
A Volusia County jury convicted Tommy M. Francis on a sexual battery charge Wednesday after 2 days of trial and another 2 hours of deliberation.
Prosecutors are looking to have Francis labeled a Prison Release Reoffender and a Habitual Felony Offender before he’s sentenced on September 18th by 7th Circuit Judge Leah Case.
If all that happens, Francis is looking at up to 60 years in prison for having sex with the girl on Christmas Day 2014.
The Daytona Beach Police Department says detectives were notified the following day when the girl told her aunt about what happened and then told detectives once evidence was gathered from the girl at Halifax Health Medical Center.
According to the arrest report, the girl claimed Francis put his penis in her vagina while they were in her mother’s bedroom and all her siblings were in another room.
DBPD detectives set up a controlled phone call the following day between Francis and the girl’s mother where Francis initially admitted to giving the girl some alcohol to drink and rubbing his penis against the girl’s buttocks while fully clothed, per the report.
It was after that call, according to DBPD, when Francis called the victim and told her what he said to her mother, at which point the girl called him a liar and threatened to tell her mother what really happened between them.
After that, Francis called the girl’s mother back and claimed that the sex happened after the girl had come on to him, per DBPD.
The report noted that Francis apologized for what happened during the call and wanted to work something out, at which point he agreed that he would go to DBPD headquarters to be interviewed.
During that interview, DBPD says Francis denied touching the girl inappropriately and also denied having sex with her or giving her alcohol to drink.
Francis was arrested and taken to Volusia County Jail after DBPD got a DNA sample.
VCJ records show Francis was booked in November 2012 for robbery and again in November 2013 for robbery, driving without a license and fleeing & eluding law enforcement.
Tommy M. Francis (mugshot courtesy VCJ)
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.