Warner Robins man sentenced to life in prison for aggravated sexual battery, child molestation

According to the district attorney’s office, the jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before returning its verdict.

WARNER ROBINS, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — A Warner Robins man was sentenced to life in prison Thursday after a jury found him guilty of aggravated sexual battery and child molestation, according to Houston County District Attorney Eric Edwards.

29-year-old Marquise Lavelle Howard was found guilty September 24 following a two-day jury trial in Houston County Superior Court. He was convicted of two counts of aggravated sexual battery and one count of child molestation.

According to the district attorney’s office, the jury deliberated for about 20 minutes before returning its verdict. Howard was sentenced to life in prison immediately following the verdict.

The case came to the attention of law enforcement in 2024 after two children, who were 8 and 5 years old at the time, disclosed that Howard had touched them inappropriately. The district attorney’s office said Howard was their mother’s live-in boyfriend and a father figure in their lives.

The Houston County Sheriff’s Office Juvenile Investigations Division investigated the allegations. Both children disclosed the abuse during forensic interviews at the Crescent House Children’s Advocacy Center, according to the release.

Investigators also determined Howard had been texting the older child and telling her not to tell her mother about the abuse.

Howard was held without bond while awaiting trial. According to the district attorney’s office, he continued contacting the children’s mother while in custody in an attempt to influence her, resulting in additional charges that remain open.

The mother and both children testified at the trial.

Assistant District Attorneys Elizabeth McDaniel of the Houston Circuit District Attorney’s Office released the following statement:

“No amount of incarceration can ever make the victims of these crimes whole. Nothing can undo the harm they have suffered or restore what was taken from them. Our responsibility as prosecutors is to seek justice, hold those responsible accountable, and ensure that the voices of the victims remain at the center of this process. The family of the victim in this case had an opportunity to be heard in court today, and this Defendant will now spend his life in prison.”

Houston County District Attorney Eric Edwards released the following statement:

“There are few crimes more reprehensible than an adult exploiting the trust and vulnerability of children who look to him as a parent. These girls were only five and eight years old when they found the courage to disclose what this defendant had been doing to them, and the evidence showed that he knew exactly how wrong his conduct was—going so far as to tell one of these children to keep his abuse secret from her own mother. Today, a Houston County jury needed only twenty minutes to hold him accountable, and he will now spend the rest of his life in prison. I am tremendously grateful to Investigator Bety Ondik for the thorough investigation she conducted, and once again to the professionals at Crescent House Children’s Advocacy Center for providing the skilled, compassionate forensic interviewing that is so critical in cases involving young children. I also want to commend Assistant District Attorneys Elizabeth McDaniel and Sandra Matson for the tremendous work they put into presenting this case to a jury, and most importantly, these two brave young girls and their family for having the courage to come into a courtroom, confront this defendant, and tell the truth about what he did to them. They deserved to be believed, protected, and heard, and today they were.”