A Ridgeland man will spend a decade behind bars for molesting a child.
Madison County District Attorney Bubba Bramlett announced that 44-year-old Ronnie Hales pled guilty to one count of gratification of lust for molesting his then–girlfriend’s 10-year-old daughter.
In February 2023, investigators with the Ridgeland Police Department received a complaint of sexual abuse involving a minor female. The child had reported to her biological father that her mother’s boyfriend had been molesting her since she was eight years old.
Officers immediately began an investigation which included a forensic interview of the child through the Child Advocacy Center. During the interview process, the unidentified child disclosed multiple incidents of sexual abuse at the hands of Hales. Most of these incidents of abuse had occurred in the child’s bed.
Investigators then executed a search warrant at Hales’ home, which he shared with the child’s mother. Authorities seized several items from the residence, including the sheets from the child’s bed. The Mississippi Crime Lab tested the sheets and located a substance on the sheets which was found to be the defendant’s DNA.
Hales was then taken into custody. He has since been sentenced to serve 10 years in the Mississippi Department of Corrections without the possibility of early release or parole.
“We would like to thank the many state agencies who worked together to ensure my office could obtain a conviction in this matter,” Bramlett said. “The Ridgeland Police Department, the Mississippi Children’s Advocacy Center, and the Mississippi Crime Lab were all crucial parts of the investigative process in this case. We hope the minor child in this matter can now have some closure in this matter and move forward from her abuse.”
Hales will have to register as a sex offender upon his release.
