
A Paterson, N.J., jury found Aswad Ayinde guilty Wednesday on all counts of molesting his biological daughter from the age of 8 until she finally bore his child as a teenager.
The former Fugees "Killing Me Softly" director was convicted on multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault, lewdness, child endangerment, aggravated criminal sexual contact and criminal sexual contact. Ayinde, whose original name is Charles McGill, faces 40 years when sentenced and more than 100 years if convicted of all charges of raping and impregnating four other daughters that he faces in upcoming trials.
"We definitely found the daughter's testimony credible," said juror Suzanne Miller to The Record, as she left the courthouse with fellow jurors. "We all agreed. It was a unanimous decision."
The unnamed daughter, who is now 23 years old and went to police back in 2006 to reveal the 17 years of horrors her family had endured, testified that her molestation began as a child. She also stated that her father would beat her, their mother and sisters incessantly.
The young woman got pregnant by her dad at 15 and gave birth to the child. She also recounted stories that her father would tell about how he was Christ, a prophet, and was trying to create a blue-blood race among them. These were reportedly his reasons for isolating and having incestuous relations with them.
Four of the alleged victims were daughters with his wife, Beverly, who also testified at trial. Three of those four daughters bore six children by Ayinde, prosecutors charge.
The jury began their deliberations on Tuesday afternoon and reached their decision by Wednesday at 3:21 p.m. As the head juror read the verdict, Ayinde stood devoid of any emotion.
Jurors in this trial were only given information about the other alleged sexual assault victims when it related to the abusive household Ayinde maintained. The jurors for each subsequent trial will also only be given the pertinent facts of each individual victim's case.
Ayinde was being held in the Passaic County jail on $1 million bail during the trial. The bail was then revoked and it was ordered that Ayinde continue to be held until sentencing on Jan. 7th.
"I'm really happy with the jury's verdict. I'm glad justice was served," said Passaic County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Squitieri, who argued the case for the state.


Comments: (28)
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By: tanzyp on 10/21/2010 12:18PM
I hope that the young ladies who suffered years of abuse at the hands of this man (not a father), will begin to heal. It's sad that so many years passed and NO ONE, mother, relatives, teachers, neighbors reported this to the authorities? (or did they). Didn't someone see that this family needed help? And when the children were bearing children, weren't they required to provide the name of the father? Someone (some system) dropped the ball here?
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By: carla ford on 10/21/2010 1:50PM
Good point, I noticed in the article that this man changed his name from Charles McGill. Maybe that was the named used on the birth certificates of his children/grandchildren(what a shame), and noone ever made the connection.
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By: bestausweh on 10/23/2010 5:55PM
Crimes like this escapes detection because of the labeling that goes on in our society. More than likely, when the "evidence" surfaced in the form of a "teen pregnancy" it wound up something seen as the usual teen pregnancy labeling the victim when the man who conceived this child has a reputable status of a "former director".
The abusive man played on the financial vulnerability and the psychological dependence of the mother who was dependent on him and in most instance like these the mother must decide whether to leave on her own or stay behind with her children.
Perhaps the only person who could do anything about this was the daughter who reported this empowered when she became of age, thus by then legally immune to him.
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By: SRC on 11/02/2010 7:11PM
You would be suprised at how often this happens and how often these girls are shamed into not telling anyone. They lie about who the father is, they say it was some one night stand.
My daughter had a friend that went through this and it took her till the child 2nd birthday to come clean and convict her father. No one knew what she went through till she was ready to tell.
He never seemed like the type and she never really showed any signs of things going wrong in her house.
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By: forreal on 10/21/2010 1:58PM
hope he gets what he deserves.. it's so sad when you here of horrendous stories such as this one.. shame on the mother for allowing this to happen.. she did because she did nothing because she was scared of the beatings.. what's worse than having your children raped by your husband, their father and than impregnated and forced to give birth..
I pray they these girls get the help they need..
DISGUSTING!
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By: mancha de platano on 10/21/2010 3:43PM
A man of god, yeah right.....I teelya some hertosexual males are not only disgusting, they don't care about their babes. Man of god, image, this psyhcopath speaking for god, yuckkk
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By: Khristella on 10/21/2010 2:16PM
If we ever needed the Lord before, we sure do need him now!
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By: shellfish789 on 10/22/2010 3:29AM
People are Cracking Up!........this come to show you...the entertainment field is full of "Mits-Fits" and abuser .....
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By: Alabama on 10/22/2010 8:02AM
The court need to hang his ass because he think he's the King. Our God we pray to do not beleive in mess like this. The God we pray to is Awesome and this man will get his starting from the county jail to the big house when he enter it thats for sure.He needs life without comming out!!!! ever again.
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By: bobbie cornett on 10/22/2010 10:11AM
I so thoroughly believe in the castration of these type of criminals... and in the case of one demonic as this guy clearly is... beheading before a crowd is highly recommended. the Arabs has got the right ideal of their handling of such criminals. (If they are still beheading and stoning.)
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