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KEARNEY - From the beginning of the allegations Kenneth Fleming has denied sexually assaulting two young girls in a six-month period.

And even after a Buffalo County District Court jury of eight men and four women found him guilty Thursday of two counts of first-degree sexual assault on a child, Fleming still professed his innocence.

"The state is sending an innocent man to jail," an angry Fleming blurted.

But it was Fleming's victims the jury believed, and it took just 1½ hours to reach the unanimous guilty verdicts.

Fleming, 25, now faces a minimum of 30 years in prison. Judge John Icenogle ordered the state probation department to conduct a presentence investigation, including a sex offender evaluation, on Fleming and report back to him.

A sentencing date hadn't been set at press time. Fleming is being held at the Buffalo County Detention Center on a $350,000 bond.

At Icenogle's instruction, the courtroom remained silent as Clerk Sharon Mauler read the verdicts. But outside the courtroom, parents of the victims wept and tightly embraced as Fleming was handcuffed and led back to jail.

Fleming appeared shocked at the verdict. Moments earlier inside the courtroom as he waited for the verdict, he smiled and told his mother, Deb Dyer, "I'm ready. I've been praying."

Fleming's mother uncontrollably wept in an older woman's arms after the verdict.

"Oh, my god," she wailed.

Earlier Thursday, Fleming testified for just more than an hour about how he met his now-estranged wife, the mother of one victim, their work habits, the six homes they lived in during their three-year marriage and the location of the computers in those homes. Fleming contradicted several aspects of the mother's testimony saying she worked little in or outside the home during their marriage, and that he did much of the cooking for his family of six after working all day.

When asked about the computers in their home, Fleming said he and the mother would occasionally watch adult pornography together on the computer after the four children were in bed.

Throughout his testimony, Fleming kept a nearly constant gaze on his public defender, Mike Baldwin of Kearney. At the same time, a male juror sitting less than six feet from Fleming never looked at the defendant during his entire testimony.

Fleming said the couple baby-sat for the second victim and her siblings from time to time while they lived a 919 W. 17th St., but when they moved to 1623 Ave. F, they never baby-sat for the victim again. On cross-examination, Deputy Buffalo County Attorney Mike Mefferd asked Fleming why the second victim and both her parents testified to being in his house on Avenue F, and why the girls both said they were assaulted inside the house.

Fleming had no explanation, and denied doing anything inappropriate with the girls.

"We baby-sat for them at 919," Fleming said repeatedly.

Fleming's cousin Shasta Fiegueroa and her family moved into Fleming's home on Avenue F in August shortly after another Fleming friend and her boyfriend moved out. Fiegueroa said she, her husband and two young sons lived in an upstairs bedroom for about three months.

With 10 people in the house, Fiegueroa said she spent most of her time taking care of the six children and cooking, while Fleming and her husband worked. Fiegueroa also contradicted Fleming's testimony by saying on two occasions Fleming's second victim stayed at the Avenue F house, although none of her siblings did.

Her testimony corroborated what the second victim had said earlier during her testimony.

Fiegueroa also said there was an time when she and her husband returned to Fleming's Avenue F home from grocery shopping that they found Fleming's estranged wife asleep on the couch and several children, including the first victim, watching a pornographic movie involving a man and two women.

During closing arguments, defense attorney Rob Kortus of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy in Lincoln accused the ex-wife of fabricating the assaults and coaching her daughter about what to tell authorities in an attempt to get back at Fleming. He also said computers where porn had been previously watched were also accessible to the girls.

But Deputy Buffalo County Attorney Melanie Young scoffed at the notion, saying neither one of the girls could have graphically testified what happened to them by watching pornography, HBO or their parents in intimate relations.

"If that didn't happen to them, where else would they have gotten that graphic of information from?" she asked.

She also asked why, if Fleming's estranged wife coached her daughter, the second victim could provide the same graphic detail as the first girl, even though the second victim hadn't been in contact with the mother since the allegations were made.

Also during the trial:

? Wednesday, outside the presence of the jury and during a brief recess, Fleming talked with his mother and two other supporters. At one point Fleming smiled and said he had been practicing how he would testify under cross-examination.

He also talked Thursday of going home after being acquitted.

? Before testimony began Thursday, Mefferd asked Icenogle to allow the endorsement of additional witnesses, medical professionals, in the trial after receiving new information in the case. Tuesday, one of Fleming's victims sought medical attention after complaining to her mother.

A physician's assistant at Saint Francis Medical Center in Grand Island examined the girl and diagnosed her as being probable for having herpes. Herpes is a highly contagious sexually transmitted disease usually spread through sex.

Mefferd also wanted to endorse a Gothenburg doctor who performed a test on Fleming in October 2006, and said it was probable Fleming had a mild case of herpes. Earlier during the trial, Fleming's estranged wife also said Fleming had herpes.

But Kortus objected, saying there were no written affidavits from the medical professionals, that the physician assistant's findings were only a probability the girl had the disease, that the physician's assistant wasn't a certified doctor, that Fleming hadn't recently been tested, and that the defense would need time to research the disease and find its own witnesses to testify about the test results. Kortus said Fleming's right to a speedy trial would also be jeopardized if the trial were to be continued to depose the additional witnesses.

Icenogle didn't allow the evidence because it wouldn't be possible to dismiss the jury for several weeks and expect members to not read or discuss anything about the trial, and that test results showed only a probability the girl had the disease.

e-mail to:

kim.schmidt@kearneyhub.com

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