Covington Woman Convicted Of Raping Child Over Several Years

District Attorney Warren Montgomery announces that a St. Tammany Parish jury found Sandra E.

Gaines (39) of Covington guilty Thursday (March 28, 2019) of two counts of aggravated rape and three counts of sexual battery for repeatedly raping a child under age 13 with another adult over several years. She faces mandatory life in prison when she is sentenced before Judge William J. Burris on April 10. Gaines’s longtime boyfriend, Robert Cardell Flowers, was convicted on the same charges in June 2015, and he was sentenced a month later to spend the rest of his life in prison.

The victim, now 18, testified during Gaines’ trial this week that the pair began touching her sexually when she was about 5 years old and that the abuse progressed and continued for several years through 2012. The victim testified that she was repeatedly raped during that time.

Gaines’ attorneys acknowledged that the girl had been sexually abused by Flowers, but they said she lied when she included Gaines in the allegations. After almost two days of testimony, the jury rejected that argument.