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Trial underway in Carbondale child sex assault case

Tatiana Flowers
Glenwood Springs Post Independent
John Wayne Diamond

A seven-day trial is underway for a 45-year-old Carbondale man, who is charged with seven counts of sexual assault on a child.

Police say the alleged abuse, which spanned four years, involved an adolescent girl, who was approximately 9 to 13 years old at the time of the alleged assaults.

John Wayne Diamond, at the time owner of GreenBuild Roofing LLC in Basalt, is accused of molesting the girl from 2011 to 2015, according to police reports.



The incidents occurred at multiple locations, including at Missouri Heights, Diamond’s office in Willits Town Center, a house near Carbondale, and a residence in Basalt, according to police.

Over the course of four years, Diamond would allegedly entice the victim with food, Ebay items, video games and playing cards, the victim told police. He would also buy her food, flowers, necklaces, knives and other items, according to another witness. The victim also said that at one point he gave her $200 to have intercourse with him.




According to court documents, Diamond also threatened that if the young girl told anyone, he would kill her, along with her family, responding cops and himself, according to the investigation affidavit in the case.

Court records also reveal that, in recent years, Diamond had multiple arrests for incidents involving harassment, heroin use, menacing, firing a gun inside a residence during an argument with a loved one, child abuse, criminal mischief, violating protection orders and bond conditions, criminal trespassing, and domestic violence, court records also reveal.

The current case that’s on trial involves on one count of pandering a child, a class 2 felony; 11 counts of sexual assault on a child younger than 15 as a pattern of abuse, a class 3 felony; one count of sexual assault on a child younger than 15, a class 4 felony; 3 counts of enticement of a child, a class 4 felony; and one count of misdemeanor menacing.

In court on Wednesday, his ex-wife testified and kept her head down as prosecutors played an audiovisual recording of an argument between her and Mrs. Diamond.

Mrs. Diamond said she had recorded the video as evidence, in secret, to avoid retaliation, which she had also tried to do in the past.

She said Mr. Diamond had exposed himself to the victim and other children, and told the court she felt threatened in one instance when he carried a gun in the house.

Diamond’s defense attorney, Elise Myer, argued that the victim was told to lie during a forensic interview following the alleged abuse.

After Wednesday’s testimony, presiding Judge Denise Lynch said she expected to hear testimony from the victim and other key witnesses in the case.

The trial resumes Friday and is scheduled to end June 26, but could run longer, the judge said. Diamond is currently free on $503,000 bond.

Crime


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