A Richmond County jury deliberated barely 45 minutes before finding an Augusta trucker guilty of 25 counts of child sexual abuse against two girls.
David Wesley Campbell, 40, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Chief Superior Court Judge James G. Blanchard sentenced Campbell to life in prison for rape, plus 20 years for child molestation and 20 years on each of five counts of sexual exploitation of children, all to serve consecutively.
“I’ve seen no remorse out of you until you were convicted,” Blanchard told Campbell, who began crying after the verdict was read. “I can’t think of anything any worse that could happen to a girl at that age.”
Not only did the girls, who were approximately 11 and 13 at the time of the crimes, have to endure the abuse, “They had to relive it in public at your expense,” he said.
Blanchard said in his long career, the four-day trial was “one of the roughest ones I’ve had to sit through.”
Lead prosecutor Randi Guillory walked the jury through hours of interviews with the two victims and investigators. Prosecutors showed jurors dozens of close-up photos Campbell shot of the girls’ naked bodies and himself violating them.
Polled on their support for the verdict, most jurors responded with a firm “yes” and returned to the courtroom afterward to see Campbell’s sentencing.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the service you rendered to this county and to the state of Georgia,” Blanchard said.
Inv. Samuel Long with the Augusta Circuit District Attorney’s Office read victim-impact statements from the two girls as they stood by his side.
“I was once a little girl, but not anymore,” one said. “You put me through hell, and you probably don’t feel bad about it.”
The abuse went on for several years, and Campbell, released on bond in 2021, somehow regained access to the girls until his bond was revoked in January.
“I cry myself to sleep every night,” the other victim said. “You can go to hell, for all I care.”
Campbell, represented by Caitlin Angelette, had the opportunity to avoid trial and was in court in early June for the purpose of pleading guilty in exchange for a life sentence plus five years. At the last moment, he withdrew his plea and was re-indicted on a greater number of charges.
Campbell was named in a 25-count June indictment for rape, aggravated sexual battery, aggravated child molestation, 10 counts of child molestation and 11 counts of sexual exploitation of children.
