Diego Martin Pena was sentenced Wednesday by Superior Court Judge William T. Boyett to serve 25 years without the possibility of parole followed by life on probation for aggravated child molestation, with concurrent 15 year sentences on the child molestation and statutory rape counts.
Pena, 39, of 193 Bells Ferry Road, White, Ga., was convicted in October by a Murray County jury of aggravated child molestation, child molestation and statutory rape for offenses against a single victim. Detective Brett Morrison of the Murray County Sheriff’s Office presented the case along with Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer. The state called a total of three witnesses, including the victim. A witness from the Georgia state crime lab testified concerning DNA test results which indicated Pena was the father of the victim’s child.
The investigation began in 2012 when the victim was 15 after reports were presented through Murray County Schools. The victim was pregnant at the time but it was initially believed that the father of the child was a classmate of similar age. In 2014, after the victim had moved out of state, paternity testing revealed that Pena was the child’s father. That revelation led the Murray County Sheriff’s Office to reopen their investigation and request additional DNA testing through the Georgia State Crime Lab. The sexual acts occurred between 2008 and 2011 when the victim was 11-14 years of age. The District Attorney’s Office sought an indictment once the Georgia DNA testing was completed in early 2015.