Robert Flowers
COVINGTON— Robert C. Flowers, 29, of Covington, has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole for multiple incidents of aggravated rape and sexual battery of a girl who was younger than 13 years old. Judge Raymond Childress sentenced Flowers on July 7 to two life sentences for his conviction last month on two counts of aggravated rape, plus 40 years for each of his three sexual battery convictions.
The victim, now 14, testified during Flowers’ trial last month that he began touching her sexually when she was about 5 years old and that the abuse progressed and continued for several years through about December 2012. A woman named Sandra Gaines brought Flowers into the child’s life, and the girl testified that both adults repeatedly sexually abused her. Gaines is scheduled to be tried on those charges in August.
Flowers admitted in a statement to police that he had intercourse with the girl and that Gaines participated. But he claimed his confession had been coerced. The jury rejected that argument, as well as Flowers’ contention that the victim had made up the stories of abuse.
Assistant District Attorney Nick Noriea prosecuted the case, and Detective Hugh Davis of the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation.