Jury finds Oroville man guilty of child molestation
Second man suspected of molesting the same children; girls’ mother faces 19 years in prison
OROVILLE >> Following an 11- day jury trial, an Oroville man was found guilty Tuesday of molesting two young girls last year when they were 7 and 10 years old.
Joshua Chadwick, 40, of Oroville, who was on federal parole for child pornography, was convicted of six individual counts of lewd and lascivious conduct involving the girls, along with a special enhancement for multiple victims. The jury deliberated for nearly three days to reach the verdict.
During the trial, both girls, now 8 and 11, who are sisters, testified against Chadwick in court and “bravely” faced him, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said in a press release.
“Despite their tender years, the girls showed more bravery and resilience on the witness stand than most adults,” trial prosecutor and Deputy District Attorney J. J. Stark-Modlin said in the release.
Stark-Modlin also said two comfort dogs, Micah
and Reuben, sat at the girls’ feet while they testified in court. The Lutheran Churches of Yuba City and Elk Grove provided the dogs.
The two girls, their older siblings and parents moved into Chadwick’s home last year after moving out of David Acuff’s home. Acuff, 38, of Oroville, is Chadwick’s cousin and is currently pending trial for his alleged earlier molestation of the same girls when they lived in his home.
Evidence presented at trial showed Chadwick targeted the girls and considered them “easy prey” based on the previous molestations in Acuff’s home, according to Ramsey.
Butte County Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested both men in July 2020 after receiving information that Chadwick had been “possibly acting inappropriately” toward several children, according to a BCSO press release.
After serving search warrants at both men’s homes and locating further evidence in the case, detectives
determined Chadwick had recent contact with the children and had been sexually abusing them for an extended period of time.
Chadwick was previously convicted of child pornography possession and sentenced to five years in federal prison in 2012, Ramsey said. Evidence produced at the recent trial included child pornography depicting the two sisters, which detectives said they found in Chadwick’s possession during a search of his home.
Federal prosecutors are preparing to pursue further child pornography charges against Chadwick, the DA’s Office said, which could bring an additional 50 years of federal prison time, in addition to sentence he currently faces, up to 43 years to life in state prison. His pending sentencing hearing is slated for May 5.
The children’s mother, Summer Carver, 36, pleaded guilty last week to four counts of procuring a child to engage in a lewd act, and four counts of felony child abuse — as a result of knowingly making her children available to Chadwick and Acuff.
Carver faces 19 years and four months in state prison and is scheduled to be sentenced on April 28.
Ramsey offered praise for the12 deliberating jurors and three alternate jurors for sitting through an “emotional” jury trial that was spread over five weeks. The jurors listened to and watched evidence related to sexual acts with children, including the videos depicting child pornography of the victims.
“Justice is never easy and is rarely swift,” Ramsey said, “yet despite the length of the trial and the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, Butte County residents are taking their job as jurors seriously and rendered a guilty verdict after deliberating for nearly three days.”