Apartment custodian sentenced to 30 years for child molestation in Gwinnett County case

GWINNETT COUNTY, GA– A Suwanee apartment maintenance worker was sentenced on Sept. 11 to 30 years in prison, after pleading guilty to sexually abusing a young girl.

James Tyler Turner, 37, pled guilty to aggravated child molestation, child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes for molesting a child over the course of about two years. He was sentenced to 30 years with 20 to serve in prison uninterrupted. He also must register for life as a sex offender.

“This is unconscionable,” District Attorney Patsy Austin-Gatson said. “This guilty plea is the result of good investigation and prosecutorial work by our team of competent law enforcement professionals.”

From the time the victim was 11, the defendant began having inappropriate sexual contact with the victim. The girl’s mother reported Turner to police in 2025 when the girl was 13 years old, after discovering text messages from him on the victim’s cell phone.

After seeing the mounting evidence against him, the  defendant pled guilty before trial as a jury was being selected, according to the investigation. 

Special Victims Unit Managing Assistant District Attorney Megan Matteucci and SVU Assistant District Attorney Scott Estes prosecuted the case with assistance from SVU Investigators Jessica Pirones and Joseph Boyd, and Victim Witness Program Director Beth Gorski and Victim Witness Advocates Rocio Pineda and Marilucia Munez.

The Suwanee Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigations were instrumental in closing this case.