Farina man guilty of sex crimes

It took a Fayette County jury less than 30 minutes on Tuesday to convict a Farina man of sex offenses.
Ryan E. Mulvaney, 35, was found guilty of four aggravated criminal sexual abuse at the completion of a two-day jury trial.
The trial began with jury selection on Monday morning and ended early Tuesday afternoon with closing arguments by Fayette County Assistant State’s Attorney Matt Chancey and Mulvaney’s attorney, Bryan Kibler of Effingham.
The trial judge, Fayette County Resident Circuit Judge S. Gene Schwarm, turned the case over the jury at 1:50 p.m., and the jury announced at 2:20 p.m. that it had reached a verdict.
Mulvaney was charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse in information filed by the office of State’s Attorney Stephen Friedel on June 7 of this year.
Two of the charges allege that Mulvaney committed the offense on Feb. 4, a third alleges that he also committed the offense sometime during February, and a fourth alleges that the criminal action occurred between March 15 and April 5.
The charges allege that the victim was under the age of 13. Chancey said that there were two victims in this case, one being 10 years old and the other 8 years old.
A status hearing for the case has been set for Dec. 21.
Such a hearing is required because at the completion of the trial, Kibler asked to withdraw as Mulvaney’s attorney, because he takes over as the state’s attorney in Effingham County next week.
Mulvaney told Schwarm that he plans to hire an attorney.
Because of that situation, Schwarm waived the standard requirement of a defendant filing a post-trial motion – which could include a motion to set aside the jury verdict or a motion for a new trial – within 30 days.
This was Chancey's final jury trial in Fayette County, and it was for a crime that he and Friedel concentrated on addressing.
"It was one that I paid particular attention to and stressed the importance of a good investigation," Chancey said.
"It's one of the things that I'm most proud of in my time ( 5 1/2 years) here in Fayette County.
"In that time, we've had 35 cases involving crimes of sexual assault or sexual abuse, and of the 35, we've had 33 felony convictions.
"I'm particularly proud of that record," Chancey said.