MESA, AZ (AZFamily) — An Arizona man will spend life behind bars after being convicted of child sex crimes involving a young girl.

Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell announced that David Cruz, 44, was sentenced to two terms of life in prison, plus 30 years for sex crimes against an 8-year-old girl.

In Sept. 2023, the young girl told her grandmother that Cruz had been inappropriately touching her for several months, and he told her not to tell anyone. The child and her grandmother lived with Cruz in Mesa at the time.

When Mesa police questioned him, investigators say Cruz admitted that several sexual acts happened between him and the child. However, the attorney’s office said that Cruz “tried to deflect blame onto the little girl.”

During Cruz’s trial, prosecutors played three se

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