After about an hour of deliberation, the jury issued a guilty verdict to Rodney P. Morton, 34, on the charges of third-degree sexual assault and second-degree assault stemming from the May 22 incident.
Morton will be sentenced later this year after a pre-sentencing investigation is completed. He is currently released on $50,000 bond.
According to testimony in Worcester County Circuit Court, on the night of the incident, Morton carried his sleeping daughter from his room and put her to bed in the next room over.
But before leaving the room, he "put his hands down her shorts," said Assistant State's Attorney Diane Cuilhe, causing injury to her genitals.
Morton's daughter, who was awake at the time but with her eyes closed, testified that she watched her father leave the room. About five seconds later, she started crying, soon drawing the attention of other people in the Walnut Street house.
"I don't know why he did it," the 9-year-old said in court, describing her father as having sharp fingernails. "I don't know if he meant to do it, but he did it ... It really hurt. I didn't know what to do."
Morton, who has had full custody of his child for the last several years, claimed it never happened. After carrying his daughter to bed, he said he adjusted her shorts, which had shifted up her body, tucked her in and left the room.
"As far as I'm aware, I didn't come anywhere close to that area," Morton said.
The 9-year-old told her mother, who lives in Tennessee, the following morning. She drove up to collect her daughter and took her to Atlantic General Hospital, where a nurse found the injury. The girl now lives with her mother.
Charges were filed against Morton on May 24.
"I was quite shocked," Morton said. "It does bother me that my daughter would accuse me of doing this."
jhopkinson@dmg. gannett.com
DELMARVANOW.COM
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