By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – A former police officer arrested and charged with sexual abuse of a child under 12, rape and sodomy in 2008 was found guilty of the charges by a jury last week.

Ronald Loyd Whitworth Jr., 43, was convicted June 16 of three felonies, first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, sexual abuse of a child under 12, along with endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, according to Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Dan McBrayer.

Other charges Whitworth is facing, including second-degree possession or marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of pornographic material and producing pornographic material remain untried, McBrayer wrote in an email June 23.

Whitworth’s sentencing is set for July 12 at 1:30 p.m.

Whitworth, who previously listed an address on Weatherby Cove, off U.S. 280, in Birmingham, spent about a week in jail after Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested him in April 2008 and was released on a $260,000 bond.

More charges were levied against Whitworth in May after members of the Secret Service searched his home.

At the time, Special Agent in Charge Roy Sexton said the Secret Service was brought in to assist in retrieving electronic data from Whitworth’s personal computer.

Officers with the Birmingham Electronic Crimes Task Force discovered dozens of movies and pictures containing child pornography on that computer.

A federal grand jury indicted Whitworth on charges of possessing child pornography and transporting a minor across state lines for sex, but Whitworth fled to Los Angeles before agents could arrest him.

His truck was found July 31, 2008, at the Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport. Inside were guns and a note that read, “They won’t ever fine me … six days in jail was unbearable for me,” according to authorities.

In August 2008, U.S. Marshals arrested Whitworth in an apartment in Washington state, and said he was staying with an acquaintance in Lynnwood, Wash., where he had assumed a new identity.

Before his arrest, the Secret Service had listed Whitworth as one of their “Most Wanted Fugitives.”

U.S. Marshals handled Whitworth’s extradition from Washington.

Then-Shelby County Assistant District Attorney Bill Bostick said Whitworth would be brought back to Alabama to face federal charges and would remain in federal custody, meaning he might not return to Shelby County.

Bostick said the DA’s office planned to prosecute state charges, and was granted a motion in 2008 to revoke Whitworth’s bond, which meant if he were ever released from federal custody, he could be jailed here immediately.