Wis. man convicted of sexually abusing stepsister

Updated at 2:49 p.m. Friday, Feb. 21.

MADISON, Wis. — A jury has convicted a 20-year-old Wisconsin man of sexually and physically abusing his stepsister, who was 15 and weighed just 68 pounds when she fled their family's home barefoot in February 2012.

The girl, now 17, said that her father and stepmother refused to feed her, locking her in the basement with boarded up windows, motion sensors and an alarm on the door. They were convicted on child abuse charges at separate trials. Each received five-year sentences.

During her stepbrother's trial on Tuesday, she testified about being bullied and beaten with a wiffle ball bat by her stepbrother. She told the court she feared adults would not believe her if she told them about the sexual abuse, reports CBS affiliate WISC.

Prosecutors said the man was 13 and his stepsister was nine when the first of two assaults occurred, and that the man sexually assaulted the girl because he thought he could get away with it. The abuse happened between 2006 and 2011 in the home where the then-children lived with the girl's father and the boy's mother, according to prosecutors.

Crimesider isn't naming the man to avoid identifying the victim.

Several witnesses testified Thursday morning, followed by brief closing arguments from both sides.

The jury deliberated for nearly 11 hours before convicting the man on the charges of first-degree sexual assault of a child, second-degree sexual assault of a child, and child abuse, according to WISC. The station reports that the verdict was handed down just after midnight Friday. 

Judge Julie Genovese scheduled sentencing for Wednesday. She could also sentence him then in another sexual assault case from December 2012. That case also involved a child.

The man previously pleaded no contest in November 2011 to sexual assault charges involving a different girl in a separate case, according to the station.

Defense attorney Ronald Benavides argued that there were inconsistencies in the stepsister's story that should prevent jurors from believing her accusations. A school social worker became involved after the girl said something at her elementary school that led officials to believe she may have been abused at home. The girl later told the social worker she wasn't actually sexually abused.

There was also a lack of physical evidence for the sexual assault charges, as doctors who examined the girl in 2012 said there was no evidence of sexual assault.

Assistant Dane County District Attorney Matt Moeser told jurors that the girl's father and stepmother put her into in-patient psychiatric care after she told them about the first sexual assault.

Moeser said the parents' punishment of the girl, along with her mistreatment, may have explained her reluctance to tell authorities she had been sexually assaulted in the home. He called living conditions there a "perfect storm" for sexual abuse.