Jerry Sandusky was convicted of 45 of 48 criminal counts in a child molestation case against the former Penn State University football coach on Friday.
The guilty verdicts include 25 felony counts. Combined, Sandusky could be sentenced to 442 years in prison. Sandusky, dressed in a brown sports coat, was immediately taken into custody and led from the courthouse in handcuffs.
The jury—which included many people with close ties to Penn State—deliberated for only 20 hours on 48 charges against Sandusky. The two-week trial featured damning testimony against Sandusky, who was accused of performing anal and oral sex on boys as young as 8.
Despite the lack of physical evidence and the time lapse since the sex abuse, the defense was unable to discredit the eight accusers. Defense lawyers declined to put Sandusky on the stand.
Trial watchers were stunned Thursday when Sandusky’s own adopted son, Matt, said his father abused him as well.
The verdict almost seemed like a foregone conclusion, given how quickly the jury came back.
“I feel, like many others, that the rapidity which with this jury has reached (a verdict) makes it all but certain it should be a guilty verdict,” Michael Boni, attorney for “Victim No. 1” told CNN’s Piers Morgan minutes before the verdict was announced.
Even Sandusky’s own legal team didn’t expect an acquittal. Earlier Friday, Sandusky’s attorney Joseph Amendola said he would “probably die of a heart attack” if the ex-coach was found not guilty.
