Aswad Ayinde, 54, was found guilty of four counts of sexual assault and two counts of aggravated sexual assault. The jury deliberated for about an hour before reaching its decision. Ayinde faces 50 years in state prison when sentenced May 27 by state Superior Court Judge Raymond A. Reddin. He remained calm throughout the proceedings.
This was the second of what will be five trials for Ayinde, who was convicted in 2010 on all counts of molesting another daughter from age 8 until she bore his child as a teenager. He must serve 23 years of his 40-year prison sentence before he’s eligible for parole. He faces more than 100 years if convicted of all the charges in the current and pending trials. Ayinde asked to be tried separately on charges of assaulting each of five daughters, arguing that previous convictions or pending charges could bias jurors. The prosecutor agreed to the request. The defendant, formerly known as Eric McGill, had a varied professional background that included a career in the music business. He directed the video for the Fugees' "Killing Me Softly," which won an MTV best R&B video music award in 1996. In his role as a self-proclaimed prophet, prosecutors told jurors, Ayinde insisted that children be born at home to avoid creatig birth certificates. Children also were home schooled, and subject to years of brutal beatings and rapes. Passaic County Senior Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Squitieri put Ayinde’s former wife and the alleged victim daughter on the witness stand, where they said Ayinde often talked of how he could easily kill the children without repercussions because, without birth certificates, there was no evidence they ever existed. It was one of many tactics Ayinde employed, the state alleged, to keep his daughters and their mother from telling anyone what was going on over several years in households in Paterson, Eatontown and the Oranges, among other places. The daughter testified that Ayinde started molesting her when she was 8, and impregnated her with the first of four babies when she was 12. She and her mother only reported him to authorities in 2005. Hackensack defense attorney Nina C. Remson argued that Ayinde family had made a lifestyle choice, as disturbing as it might seem, and that the incestuous sex and child-bearing of his daughters was consensual. While underage sex is never “consensual” in the eyes of the law, Remson argued that because there were no birth certificates there was no way of confirming when the daughter’s children were really born. She maintained the daughter was much older when the sex started with Ayinde than prosecutors have alleged. She also argued that the daughter may have a book deal in the works, and that she exaggerated her claims for the sake of potential sales.
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