A Dalton woman was convicted of four counts of sexual abuse of a child Wednesday in Murray County Superior Court.
Linda Sherwood, 46, and formerly of 515 Parkside Place, apartment 7, was convicted of two counts of child molestation, one count of aggravated sexual battery, and one count of aggravated child molestation. A Murray County jury of eight men and four women found Sherwood guilty after 30 minutes of deliberation before Senior Judge Larry Salmon of Rome Wednesday afternoon. Due to the Covid trial backlog, the four Superior Court Judges for the Conasauga Circuit added three additional trial weeks in June and July following the two weeks normally held in June. This was the first of those weeks and Judge Salmon was brought in to preside. Trials will resume on the weeks of July 12 and July 19 with Senior Judge Jack Partain expected to preside over those week.
The prosecution was represented by Assistant District Attorney Ben Kenemer and Kenemer was assisted at trial by Special Agent Eric White of the Georgia Bureau of Investigations.
Ms. Sherwood was represented at trial by Elise Williard of the Public Defender's Office. Mr. Kenemer presented a total of six witnesses and presented one exhibit: the victim’s Greenhouse interview video. Numerous witnesses from the Greenhouse child advocacy center testified concerning their investigation into the allegations presented to them by Agent White. Mr. Kenemer singled out the testimony of a therapist from the Greenhouse as being instrumental in the jury reaching their verdict. "Certainly one of the greatest challenges that we face in presenting child abuse cases is having people relate to and understand a young person who has suffered severe trauma from being sexually abused. The Greenhouse counselor in this case assisted the jury in understanding how this specific child processed the trauma she suffered and how that came out in the Greenhouse interview that was played for the jury."
Ms. Williard called three witnesses to testify for Ms. Sherwood, one of which testified via a Zoom video conference. During the pandemic judges have permitted some witnesses to testify via Zoom and Judge Salmon decided to let the witness testify given that she had a recent surgery and could not make it to the courthouse. Ms. Sherwood elected to remain silent and did not testify in her own defense.
Judge Salmon set sentencing for Aug. 25 and a presentence investigation was ordered to be completed by the Department of Community Supervision (formerly State Probation). Ms. Sherwood was in custody before trial since her arrest on July 1, 2019, and will remain in custody until sentencing. Ms. Sherwood faces up to life in prison on the two aggravated counts and up to 20 years on each on the child molestation counts.