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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A judge has sentenced a former Utah bus driver convicted of sexually abusing two 5-year-old students to serve 15 years to life in prison.
John Martin Carrell declared his innocence Tuesday as he was sentenced in a West Jordan courtroom.
A jury in July found the 62-year-old from Draper guilty on 19 felony sexual abuse charges but acquitted him of another 14 charges.
Prosecutors say Carrell abused two special needs girls repeatedly as he unbuckled them or sat with them in the driver's seat. Prosecutors showed surveillance camera footage that they say document the abuse.
Carrells's lawyer Ron Yengich contends the videos don't show evidence of abuse and adults misinterpreted what the girls said.
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