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Convicted child molester to spend 30 years in state prison

MARIETTA, Ga.,None — A former Georgia National Guard master sergeant faces a long prison term after being convicted of molesting a juvenile relative on the grounds of Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

Channel 2's Ross Cavitt was in the emotion-packed courtroom in Cobb County Monday afternoon when the victim's father asked the judge for the toughest possible sentence.

A jury had convicted former National Guard Master Sgt. John Kinnaman of sexually assaulting the girl inside an RV at a campground at Dobbins Air Reserve Base.

"And it showed that this man was a monster who took that love, trust and care and used it for his own perverted reasons" Assistant District Attorney Chuck Boring said.

Kinnaman, who also faces charges for abusing the girl in two other jurisdictions, denied the charges and said nothing in court, Cavitt reported.

The victim believes the case split her family. Her grandmother told her she didn't believe her and that her sister no longer speaks with her, according to the victim's statement Boring read in court.

"My mom and I don't have a good relationship either because even though she saw what happened, she chose to stand by him instead of me," the letter said. "When she found out, she really didn't do anything because he was still in the house and that was pretty wrong."

Kinnaman's lawyer asked the judge to consider the ex-guardsman's clean record and military service, but Judge Reuben Green said there was no worse crime that child molestation and showed little mercy.

"This house was a horrendous place for this child between the ages of 10 to 13 to live in," Green said.

Prosecutors asked for the maximum of a 60-year sentence, but the judge sentenced him to 40 years; 30 of which to be served in the state prison system, Cavitt said.

It is unclear whether cases in the two other north Georgia counties will ever come to trial.