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Prosecutors to retry child rape suspect
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Three jurors stood between him and life in prison last month. Now, John David Smartt Jr., 47, will be looking down the barrel again as prosecutors have opted to retry him on charges he molested a child for over a decade, beginning when the girl was just 4.Smartt will face a jury trial Feb. 17-18 of 2016, according to the recently released Circuit Court docket. He could face a veritable life sentence if he is convicted of the host of charges, the chief of which is child rape – a crime that carries 15 to 25 years with no chance of parole.Jurors voted by a count of 9-3 to convict him after they heard two days of testimony which included emotional testimony by the victim, who is now an adult.