Clayton News Daily

Barry Lamar Conley

JONESBORO — A College Park man who had been found guilty of child molestation twice 20 years ago was found guilty again Friday on new charges of molesting two young boys, according to one of the prosecutors handling the case.

Assistant District Attorney Katie Powers said Barry Lamar Conley, 39, was convicted on three counts of aggravated sodomy, aggravated molestation, two counts of child molestation and one count of battery in the case. The molestation took place over five years and began when the boys were 9 and 8, said Powers.

Powers said Conley denied molesting the boys during the trial, but then confessed during sentencing Friday that he “let his urges get the best of him.” She added Conley also told Clayton County Superior Court Judge Albert Collier he deserved a prison sentence for what he did.

“Not only is this justice for the victims, it also protects other children who would have been ‘victimized,’ in his own words,” said Powers, who worked on the case with Georgia State University law student Philip Curtis.

The prosecutor said Conley received two consecutive life sentences without parole, plus another 40 years in prison for the crime.

This marks the third time in 21 years that Conley has been found guilty of molesting a child. He was previously convicted in 1991 in Fulton County, and again in 1992 in DeKalb County, said Powers. She added Conley molested a family member in the 1991 case, and a male he met at church in the 1992 case.

Powers said the current molestation case began in 2005, when the boys were under the age of 10, and it continued until they reported the abuse to a relative in 2010. She added Conley knew his victims in the most recent case because he was friends with their stepfather.

“The boys disclosed the molestation to their grandfather [in 2010] and he brought them to the police,” said Powers.