Court upholds conviction in sex abuse case

JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Supreme Court Thursday upheld the conviction of a Florence man found guilty of sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl and sentenced to serve 45 years in prison.

A Rankin County jury convicted Malcolm Weeks Sr. in April 2012 on two counts of sexual battery and one count of child fondling. Weeks was sentenced to 60 years in prison with 15 years suspended, meaning Weeks would spend 45 years behind bars. He will have to register as a sex offender when he’s released.

Court records said Weeks had always denied abusing the girl and testified during his trial that he was cooperative in the investigation and “refused to plead guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence.”

At the time of Weeks’ conviction, Rankin County Dist. Atty. Michael Guest said the molestation was revealed in September 2010, but had been ongoing for several months. Guest also said DNA linked Weeks to the crime.

“The victim in this case was extremely brave and she did one of the hardest things that one can do in this situation — she came forward and told her story of being sexually abused,” Guest said.

The Associated Press does not generally identify the victims of sexual abuse.

Weeks raised three issues on appeal: that the state was permitted to improperly amend his indictment; that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury’s verdict; and that the jury’s verdicts were against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. The justices disagreed. “The overwhelming weight of the evidence supported the jury’s verdicts, and the trial court did not err in denying Malcolm’s motion for a new trial,” the court wrote in its ruling.

Weeks, 42, is in prison at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility in Pearl.