Child molester who fled Sacramento during trial sentenced to 145 years to life

A man convicted last year on child molestation charges was sentenced to 145 to life in state prison. Michael Alan Khatoonian, 43, who was convicted in December received his sentence this morning by Judge Ernest Sawtelle in Sacramento Superior Court.  

On December 13, 2019, a jury convicted Khatoonian of two counts of sexually assaulting a child younger than 10 years old, two counts of forcible sexual abuse and one count of lewd and lascivious touching of a child younger than 14 years old.  Allegations that Khatoonian has prior strike convictions for battery causing serious bodily injury in 2000 and arson on an inhabited structure in 2006 were also found true.

In the trial, prosecutors proved Khatoonian was at his own home with the victim’s mother and her 10-year-old daughter.  He sexually assaulted the 10-year-old daughter when her mother was in the bathroom, and also when her mother was sitting on the other side of Khatoonian on the couch.

Khatoonian fled the state during the trial and a bench warrant was issued. On February 3, 2020, the Sacramento Regional Post-Release Community Supervision Task Force apprehended Khatoonian in Michigan where he fled after meeting a woman online and brought him back to Sacramento for sentencing. 

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