Parolee Found Guilty of Molesting Boy

SANTA ANA — A convicted child molester, released from state prison after serving four years, sexually abused an 8-year-old Garden Grove boy while on parole, an Orange County Superior Court jury concluded Thursday.

Robert Edwin Martin, 40, was convicted of 23 counts of lewd and lascivious acts by a jury that deliberated just several hours.

Martin was arrested last June after a woman claimed to Sheriff’s Department investigators that he had molested her son. Before his arrest, Martin and the boy’s mother had been friends for three years.

The mother reported Martin to authorities after a family friend told her that he was profiled on a television show called “Convicts on the Street.” Martin, who received an eight-year sentence after he was found guilty of child molestation in 1984, gave the makers of the documentary permission to include him in the program.

Prosecutors said Martin molested the boy from December, 1989, to February, 1992.

Martin’s lawyer could not be reached for comment Thursday. Martin faces a maximum of 57 years in state prison when he returns to court for his sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled.