Tucker Man Convicted of Child Molestation of 5-Year-Old Girl

A Tucker man was convicted Wednesday for sex acts involving a 5-year-old girl in Cobb County last year.

Craig Alan Ellett, 55, was sentenced to 30 years in prison, then sex-offender restrictions and probation until he dies, according to a news release from the Cobb County District Attorney’s Office.

It took a Cobb County jury less than an hour Wednesday, June 11, to find Ellett guilty of aggravated child molestation and aggravated sodomy.

Ellett was accused of molesting the girl for more than a year, the last time believed to be Feb. 6 , 2013 in Smyrna.  The girl, now 6, testified. Jurors were shown a videotaped interview with the child, who gave “sensory details that a 5-year-old wouldn’t have known unless she experienced it,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Odom said, according to the press release.

Ellett has been in the Cobb County jail since his arrest in March 2013.

Cobb District Attorney Vic Reynolds announces that a Tucker man will spend the next 30 years in prison for sex acts involving a five-year-old girl.

A Cobb jury took less than an hour to convict Craig Alan Ellett, 55, of aggravated sodomy and aggravated child molestation. The victim was his girlfriend’s granddaughter.

“A wolf in sheep’s clothing, that’s what he is,” Senior Assistant District Attorney Eleanor Odom told jurors. “He infiltrates lives, he grooms children, and then he abuses them.”

The victim, who is now 6, testified that in February 2013, when she was alone in her bedroom at a Smyrna apartment, the man she called ‘Pops’ “put his cookie box by mine.” Jurors also saw a videotaped forensic interview of the child in which she said he put his mouth on her vagina. In that interview, the girl gave “sensory details that a 5-year-old wouldn’t have known unless she experienced it,” ADA Odom said.

In 1996, Mr. Ellett pleaded guilty to child molestation in California. That victim also testified in this trial.

After the verdict Wednesday afternoon, Cobb Superior Court Chief Judge Adele Grubbs sentenced Mr. Ellett to life, with 30 years to serve in prison, to be followed by sex-offender restrictions and probation until he dies.

Mr. Ellett has been held without bond at the Cobb Jail since his arrest in March 2013.

Defense attorney Cindi Yeager, of Marietta, told jurors that Mr. Ellett is an emergency medical technician and a veteran who has served two tours in Iraq.