Latest Headlines
- New ‘Wind Phone’ In Cantonment ‘Connects’ Grieving Families With Deceased Loved Ones
- New Details Emerge In Fatal DUI Crash That Killed 14-Year-Old Cantonment Boy; Driver Released On Bond
- Business Alliance Calls For Escambia County To Deed Part of OLF-8 For Light Industrial Use
- Escambia Tax Collector Marcus Pointe Office Moving To New Location; Driving Test Location Changing
- New 332 Lot Subdivision Planned For Devine Farm Road In Cantonment
- These Are This Week’s Road Construction Slow Down Spots
- Northview High’s Calloway Named Winner In VFW Essay Contest
- Florida Gas Prices Trend Lower After 15 Cent Hike, AAA Says
- Traffic Back To All Four Lanes In $4.7 Million Highway 29 Reconstruction In Century
- Man Charged With DUI Manslaughter After Cantonment Boy Dies
Found By TV’s America’s Most Wanted, Man Gets Life For Molesting Child
April 2, 2011
Joseph Christian Fontana, a registered sex offender, was found guilty Friday by a Santa Rosa County Jury of sexually molesting a child and sentenced to life in prison.
The 55-year old Fontana was charged with committing various sexual acts on the 11-year old son of a woman he met at church around 2001. After befriending the family, Fontana became a father figure to the child and later began to molest the boy, according to State Attorney Bill Eddins.
The crimes occurred during 2005 at a residence where Fontana was doing work as a handyman. Fontana would take the boy along with him under the guise of assisting Fontana with the work. In 2006 the victim and his older brother disclosed that Fontana had molested them.
The Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation; however, Fontana fled from the country before being arrested. He was located after being featured on the television show America’s Most Wanted. After receiving a tip that Fontana was in the Dominican Republic, federal marshals located and arrested him there in June, 2009.
Friday, Judge David Rimmer sentenced Fontana to life imprisonment for sexual battery on a child and for lewd or lascivious molestation. He also received 30 years in prison for sexual battery by a person in familial or custodial authority and five years for soliciting a child for sexual battery. All sentences were ordered to run consecutively.
Fontana was also designated as a sexual predator. Fontana was previously convicted in 1988 of three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child in California. In 1995 he was convicted in Pasco County, Florida, of handling and fondling a child and of lewd and lascivious act in the presence of a child. He was designated a sex offender at that time.
Comments
7 Responses to “Found By TV’s America’s Most Wanted, Man Gets Life For Molesting Child”
I just received a notice from the State that a convicted sex offender (involved 11 year old girl) has moved down the street from me. Does anybody know if mandatory sterilization of these people would eliminate their sick desires and therefore save tthe public from these repeat offenders.
I actually agree with everyone’s post. I can’t say I like not giving someone
a second chance, but I do agree that there are THOSE CRIMES to which no one
should ever get the chance to do them again. It is a fact that pedifiles are not able
to be fixed in the head. They just do it over and over, so I see no reason to
ever give them a break. Murder is the same way, why do we give evil more
time to do their business, and some people are just plain EVIL.
Sadly, I was sexually abused as a child and I have to live with it everyday. It’s been 25 plus years and I will never forget what happened. I have to live with that shame that I still feel because some sicko wasn’t locked up when he should have been. He was a multiple offender…it is an illness they will never quit desiring little children. Matter of fact the jerk just got out of prison for doing this to his daughter. He is a multiple multiple offender. How many childhoods have to be tainted before people start taking this seriously. These fools need to be locked up for life or put to death I prefer the second option.
i agree with AL…DO NOT LET THEM OUT!! in fact, they don’t deserve to breathe the air we breathe. SICK! if convicted, either kill them(which is what i would want if it were one of my children) or keep them locked up for life! they WILL do it again! they DO do it again…there should be no, ‘first offense’ charge and crap like that, that allows them to get out and commit the same crime and destroy yet another’s innocence!
I THINK EVERYONE THAT HURTS A CHILD SHOULD BE MARKED ON THE FOREHEAD LIKE A RATTLESNAKE IS MARKED WITH HIS RATTLES. WE TEACH OUR CHILDREN TO WATCH OUT FOR POISONOUSNESS SNAKES. SO MARKE THESE EVIL PEOPLE, AND WITH THE GRACE OF GOD OUR CHILDREN WILL BE SAFE. IF NOT FOR THAT THEN BRING BACK THE FLORIDA ELECTRIC CHAIR.
maybe this time he will never get out.
I just don’t understand why they keep getting so many chances to offend again. So many kids with scarred lives because we are afraid to be mean to the poor pervert.