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View Winners → Top Posts May 26, 2021
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The California Supreme Court refused Wednesday to hear the case of a registered sex offender from San Gabriel who was convicted of sexually abusing a young girl and possessing child pornography.
Ronald Melvin McKenzie, now 70, was convicted in September 2019 of five counts of committing a lewd act on a child and four counts each of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 years old or younger and possession of child pornography after a prior conviction.
Jurors subsequently found that he was sane at the time of the crimes.
The victim was sexually abused in 2013 and then again from July 2017 to September 2017, according to Deputy District Attorney Presciliano Duran.
McKenzie was arrested on September 25, 2017, according to news release from the City of San Gabriel.
Police said they found multiple images of child pornography when they searched electronic devices belonging to McKenzie, who was arrested after officers responded to a report of suspected child abuse received from the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
“During the initial investigation, numerous images of a sexual nature depicting minors were found on the suspect’s computer and cellphone,” San Gabriel police Lt. Brian Kott said around the time of McKenzie’s arrest. “At least one minor depicted in the photos was confirmed as also being a victim of sexual abuse.”
In a Feb. 23 ruling, a three-justice panel from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed with the defense’s contention that possession of multiple images of child pornography constitutes a single violation and vacated McKenzie’s conviction on three of the four child pornography charges. That did not affect his 23-year-to-life sentence because his sentence on the child pornography counts was ordered to run at the same time as his sentence on the sex-related counts.
McKenzie had a prior conviction from 1990 for child molestation. He is being held in Wasco State Prison ins Wasco, California, according to Los Angeles County jail records.
