Stephen Craig Ford has been adjudicated guilty and sentenced to life in prison for Sexual Battery, Child Less than 12 Years of Age and sentenced to a life sentence, to run
concurrently, for Lewd or Lascivious Molestation. Ford was also designated a Sexual Predator. The defendant was convicted in March following a Lee County trial.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorney Clark Cary.
An investigation began in October 2020, by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, when a child victim told their friend about a past occurred sex crime committed against them by the defendant. That conversation, during a sports practice, was overheard by a family member of the victim, who told an adult, who contacted a member of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Information gathered during the investigation found that the defendant molested the child multiple times between September 2014 and September 2020 in Lee County. Ford was then arrested for the crimes.
Samantha Syoen – Communications Director, State Attorney’s Office