BULLHEAD CITY – An elderly Mohave Valley man convicted of engaging in sexual relations with his former girlfriend’s pre-teen daughter has been given a 20-year prison term. Judge Billy Sipe ordered the double decade incarceration for Dennis McDaniel, 68, during a Friday sentencing hearing.
A Mohave County Superior Court jury acquitted McDaniel of one count while convicting him of another sexual conduct with a minor charge at the conclusion of trial on Sept. 8.
The victim who is now 17 testified at trial that McDaniel began taking advantage of her when she was 11 years old after she and her mother moved in with the defendant. The victim’s mother Priscilla Murphy, 50, is serving her own 15-year prison term and testified against McDaniel at trial.
That Murphy participated in the victimization of her own daughter is incomprehensible to Judge Sipe.
“It was really hard for me to even understand specifically, the threesome that the defendant had with the victim and the victim’s mother and the victim’s mother performing sex on her own 11-year-old daughter,” Sipe said. “That’s just hard for an average well-adjusted person to understand how such conduct can ever occur in a household, or anywhere quite frankly.”
It’s unclear whether other drug and sex offense charges pending against McDaniel will be resolved by trial, plea deal or dismissal.
