A 72-year-old convicted rapist was sentenced Wednesday to 520 years to life in state prison for sexually assaulting a 9-year-old Canyon Country girl under his care, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday.
John Adam Whitsell was found guilty on Oct. 12 of four counts each of lewd act upon a child and oral copulation or sexual penetration with child 10 years old or younger and one count of forcible oral copulation, victim under 14 years old, said Deputy District Attorney Ani Bailey.
In 1971, Whitsell was convicted in Louisiana of two counts of aggravated rape in two separate cases and served seven years in prison for those convictions.
In 2015, the defendant was babysitting the young family member when he abused her at her Canyon Country home between Jan. 1 and June 30 of 2015, according to evidence presented at the six-day-long trial.
The case was investigated by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Clarita Station.
