State attorney Bill Eddins announced that registered sex offender Joseph Christian Fontana was found guilty by a Santa Rosa County jury of sexually molesting a child and sentenced to life in prison, according to CJ Penton, deputy clerk at the Santa Rosa County clerk’s office.
Fontana was convicted of molesting the son of a woman he met at church in Fort Walton Beach in 2001 after becoming a father figure to the child. According to a State Attorney press release, the crimes occurred during 2005 at a resident in Gulf Breeze. In 2006, the victim and his older brother reported that Fontana had molested them. During the investigation, Fontana fled the country, but a tip from an America’s Most Wanted viewer led federal marshals to the Dominican Republic where Fontana was arrested in 2009.

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