Newton County man sentenced to 50 years for child sex crimes

A man from rural Newton County has been given a 50-year prison sentence following a jury trial conviction on  June 28th.

31-year-old Johnathan Lee Cavitte was found guilty of one count Statutory Rape and two counts of Statutory Sodomy two months ago.

Judge John LePage of the 40th Judicial Circuit sentenced Cavitte to 25 years on each count, with the count of Statutory Rape to run consecutively one count of Statutory Sodomy and the remaining count to run concurrently.

In 2018, a 4-year-old victim disclosed that she had been sexually abused at a house near Granby in July of that year. A caretaker for the child had noticed bruising around the girls’ arms that was consistent with abuse the victim recalled.

At trial in June, the defendant presented evidence of his location on July 17th, 2018 via his Google Maps account, but did not account for the other days when he had contact with the victim.

“What makes this country’s judicial system so great are the rights entitled to the accused, he was  entitled to his day in court, to a fair trial, and to a jury of his peers. He got those things,” stated Prosecuting Attorney William Lynch at the sentencing hearing. “What the state and the victim are entitled to now is justice. This victim will carry the trauma of what the defendant did to her for  the rest of her life, the trauma that he caused cannot be undone.”