Sex assault case results in 23-year sentence

A 38-year-old Cromwell man was sentenced to more than 23 years in prison Monday for engaging in oral sex with a 7-year-old girl.

Francis Lenard Marsh was convicted of three counts of criminal sexual conduct in the first degree, including penetrative sex with a victim under 16, multiple acts, by a jury. On Monday, Carlton County Sixth District judge Robert Macaulay sentenced Marsh to concurrent sentences of 280 months (23 years, 4 months) and 187 months (15 years, 7 months) in prison. He is expected to serve at least two-thirds of the longest sentence. Conditional release after confinement is for lifetime.

According to the criminal complaint, the Carlton County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Marsh in March 2019, after a juvenile relative of the young victim saw Marsh leaving the bathroom at a home, then observed the 7-year-old girl exit the bathroom after him.

The criminal complaint details that the juvenile relative then asked the younger girl what occurred in the bathroom and a juvenile friend videorecorded them talking. During the investigation, officers reviewed the recording where the victim discloses Marsh engaging in oral sex with her.

Following the initial disclosure, the victim underwent a forensic interview at First Witness Child Resource Center in Duluth. During the interview, she described the defendant making her engage in genital oral sexual penetration in the bathroom on March 3 and described similar conduct occurring many times at multiple locations since she was about 4 years old.

Officers subsequently conducted a voluntary interview with Marsh. During the interview, he said he was at the residence on the date in question but denied sexual contact with the girl. He stated that while in the bathroom he masturbated into a piece of toilet paper and that she may have been hiding in the bathtub. He also said he had previously shown the girl about 50 pornographic videos.

Marsh was arrested in April 2019. Due to the pandemic, jury trials were scheduled and canceled multiple times in 2020 and this year before the trial actually took place in June. With his criminal history, the presumptive sentence for Marsh was between 199 and 280 months. The maximum sentence is 30 years, or 360 months.

Assistant Carlton County attorney Jeffrey Boucher had argued for upward departure, consecutive sentencing (served one after the other), and/or sentencing at the high end, noting that Marsh showed his victim pornography, gave her money in exchange for oral sex, and “cultivated an environment in his family where he was so needed that he was allowed to continue to abuse his victim long after she disclosed to the family.” Judge Macaulay imposed concurrent sentences (served at the same time) but sentenced Marsh at the high end of the sentencing guidelines instead of the middle, which added an additional three years to the sentence.

Marsh had previously been convicted of soliciting a child to engage in sexual conduct in 2009 in Sherburne County.

Macaulay suggested Monday that a review for civil commitment may be appropriate for Marsh.

Editor's note: This story was modified to remove some details that might have made it easier to identify the victim.