ACWORTH, Ga. - The Cobb County District Attorney has announced that a man has been convicted of raping his young relative multiple times over nearly a decade.
A Cobb jury deliberated for less than two hours after a week-long trial before convicting 34-year-old Gabriel Alvarez of multiple counts of rape, incest, child molestation, cruelty to children in the first degree, aggravated child molestation, false imprisonment, aggravated assault, aggravated sodomy and interference with government property.
According to the D.A.'s office, Alvarez had attacked the victim when she was 11 years old. She testified that she had come home on the school bus and had gone inside her home to drop off her things. Unbeknownst to her, however, Alvarez was waiting behind the door wearing only his boxer shorts.
She attempted to run away but Alvarez caught her and dragged her into a bedroom where he suffocated her with his hands and a rag as he raped her.
During her testimony, the victim stated she felt that "she was going to die that day" because she couldn't breathe.
When she was 12, she told her mother and sister that she was being abused but no one attempted to help. Her mother, however, denied ever knowing about the assaults.
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In 2016, she was assaulted again when Alvarez snuck into the victim's bedroom through a window. After the assault, the victim told her boyfriend who then took her to the Acworth Police Department.
“From the time this child was eight years old, she was forced to endure years of the most egregious sexual abuse imaginable, to include being repeatedly raped, forced to perform oral sex and forced to watch pornography, all at the hands of someone who should’ve cared for and protected her. His actions were compounded by a family who refused to protect this child, and instead chose to protect her abuser,” said ADA Courtney Veal. “This child’s strength and resilience in light of what she has lived through with no support whatsoever is truly amazing, and I’m glad the jury returned a verdict that reflects the truth.”
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Alvarez will be sentenced on May 2 and could face a maximum penalty of four consecutive life sentences plus 195 years.
