Moses Ulysses Harris

A Loudoun County judge on Friday upheld a jury's recommendation and handed down a sentence of two life sentences plus 75 years in prison for a 52-year-old man convicted on a range of sex crime charges.

Judge Burke F. McCahill upheld a March jury recommendation for Moses Ulysses Harris, address unknown.

Harris was convicted of 10 felony offenses – two counts of rape, two counts of carnal knowledge, five counts of indecent liberties with a child by custodian and one count of manufacturing child pornography.

McCahill, under Virginia law, could have reduced the jury’s recommendation but could not have increased it. The two life terms plus 45 years of the 75-year sentence is a mandatory minimum sentence.

During the three-day jury trial in March, Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Gigi Lawless and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Angela L. Vernail presented evidence that beginning in the summer of 2007, Harris, a convicted sex offender, worked his way into the lives a local family, according to Heather Williamson, spokesperson for the Loudoun County Commonwealth Attorney's Office.

Harris eventually moved into the family's home and preyed on one of the young children living there. Williamson said Harris repeatedly sexually abused the child over a five-year period.

Harris' criminal history includes a felony conviction for indecent liberties with a child in 2002 and two prior misdemeanor convictions for failing to register as a sex offender in 2008.

In a previous trial, the victim’s mother was also convicted by a jury of felony child cruelty for knowingly allowing her child to reside with and be abused by a convicted sex offender.