Jury finds former coach guilty of abusing multiple girls
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A Kent County jury has found 50-year-old Shannon Guay guilty of sexually assaulting numerous girls while working as a gymnastics and dance coach in metro Grand Rapids.
The verdicts, announced Friday morning, cap a two-week trial that included emotional testimony from women who say they were molested by Guay years ago when they were minors.
Guay, who took the stand in his own defense, contended the criminal allegations were baseless.
Testimony begins in ex-coach’s sexual assault trial
Jurors disagreed. The panel deliberated Thursday afternoon and Friday morning before reaching a decision shortly after 10 a.m.
In all, 14 victims were identified; they ranged in age from 4 to 15. Guay was charged with 22 counts of sexual assault and one count of kidnapping. Jurors convicted him of all but one count.
Guay remains jailed. He faces up to life in prison when he returns in several weeks for sentencing in Kent County Circuit Court.
Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker said he was “tremendously pleased’’ with the verdicts.
“Assistant prosecutor Elizabeth Bartlett and detective Anna Birkland put a ton of work into this case,’’ Becker said. “I am so happy the jury listened to their case and held this man accountable for his truly horrible activities that impacted so many victims.’’
Guay was arrested in Florida in May 2023 after a woman came forward with allegations against him. After his arrest, additional women came forward to say they were victimized by him.
In closing statements to jurors on Thursday, Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Elizabeth Bartlett said Guay targeted girls and groomed girls. He was in a position of trust, but abused it making places that were supposed to be safe havens “places of fear, confusion and pain,” Bartlett said.
“It was his job to keep these kids safe,” Bartlett said in her closing statements. “And we’re talking gymnastics, rock-climbing, karate. His job was to teach these kids how to protect themselves from the monsters of the world. Isn’t that ironic.”
‘Very uncomfortable’: Sisters detail sexual abuse by ex-coach
Defense attorney Mark P. Hunting questioned how some of the reported sexual assaults could have happened at a gymnastics facility “in full view of others.”
In one case, Guay conceded to having sex with a woman who accused him, but said it was consensual and happened when she was of legal age.
Some of the allegations would have occurred when Guay was in the military and not in the area, Hunting told jurors.
“This case is exclusively a ‘she said, he said’ case,” Hunting said. “And in order to find my client guilty, you’re going to have to determine who do you believe.
“Put the pieces together,” Hunting told jurors. “I think if you do that, the only reasonable conclusion that you’re going to come to is that (Guay) is not guilty of all 23 of the charges they brought against them.”
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