He usually met the young kids through friends or significant others. Over a 25-year period, he groomed and sexually abused at least six girls — all under the age of 12.

On Thursday, a Missouri judge sentenced 53-year-old Edward Martinez to nine life sentences in prison. A jury in September convicted Martinez of a slew of charges, including child molestation, statutory rape and statutory sodomy. Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said in a press release that the abuse occurred between 1996 and 2021. The oldest victim was 12. The youngest: 4. Prosecutors called him a “serial child molester.”

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“The evidence showed that Martinez was a manipulative predator who groomed the girls and their families with gifts and financial support in order to have access to the young girls,” the press release stated.

Martinez claimed the girls were lying and made up the stories because they knew he had been found not guilty of similar charges back in the 1990s. But this jury didn’t buy his story.

The panel took just two hours to convict him. After another 30 minutes of deliberation, they recommended the nine life sentences the judge would impose Thursday.