Child Molester Gets 270-Year Term

A San Diego Superior Court judge Thursday ordered a convicted child molester to serve 270 years in state prison.

Ezra John Adams, 47, of Ramona, received what is believed to be the longest sentence ever handed down in San Diego County for his November, 1989, conviction on 86 counts of child molestation. Adams was found guilty of molesting seven girls between the ages of 8 and 17.

Adams was originally charged with 350 counts in incidents that occurred in and around his Ramona home during a five-year period prior to his arrest in November, 1988.

Among the victims were his niece, her friends, and girls she was baby-sitting.

Adams was sentenced a day after another child molester, Richard Earnest Howard, was given a sentence of 150 years, a county record that lasted less than 24 hours.

In discussing Adams’ long sentence, Superior Court Judge David Gill said, “I expect that he will suffer enormously, and rightly so given these convictions.”

Society must step in and “say we’re not going to take this anymore,” Gill said.

Adams has continually denied his guilt.

Last week, during the first part of his sentencing hearing, Adams said investigators from the county’s Child Protection Bureau had coerced victims into giving statements against him.