SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Three Utah men have been found not guilty of raping a 9-year-old girl while her mother was smoking methamphetamine in a nearby garage.
The jury reached the verdict Wednesday in the case where the girl’s harrowing testimony about what she said happened after a rural Easter egg hunt in 2016 was the centerpiece of the case.
Defense attorneys argued there was no physical evidence of the alleged assault and the child was copying a story fabricated by her paranoid mother.
Prosecutor Mark Thomas, though, pointed to the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby as he said testimony from the now 11-year-old girl should be sufficient to convict them.
The three defendants acquitted of child rape and sodomy are 38-year-old Larson RonDeau, 28-year-old Randall Flatlip and 31-year-old Jerry Flatlip.
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