Wednesday afternoon, a Platte County jury retired to its deliberation room to settle the fate of former Platte City businessman Daryl Lemasters, who stood accused of sexually abusing two juvenile girls.
The jury had heard three days of evidence, including testimony from the two girls themselves, now 13 and 12-years-old. They also heard the testimony of the 54-year-old Lemasters, who waived his right to remain silent and took the witness stand to proclaim his innocence.
By the end of the day, the jury had reached a verdict: guilty on all six counts, including four felony counts of statutory sodomy.
Given the amount of damning evidence Platte County Prosecutors provided against Lemasters, that the jury needed only a few hours to deliver a guilty verdict was not surprising. And what took place Thursday at the sentencing evidence hearing put an emphatic stamp on Lemasters’ guilt: Lemasters’ adult niece testified to the jury that Lemasters had sexually abused her when she was a child.
Lemasters faces 30 years in prison on each of the six counts. He will be sentenced in Platte County Court Aug. 1. See next week’s print version of The Citizen for a complete report.