After less than a day of deliberations, a jury on Tuesday found Douglas R. Crossley Jr., a former Lisbon resident, guilty of five counts of risk of injury to a minor.

The verdict ended a trial in which five young women, who once babysat Crossley’s children or visited his family’s home, accused him of sexually touching them between 2005 and 2010, when the women were all under the legal age of consent.

The women testified in New London Superior Court last week that Crossley and his wife invited them to parties at their former home in Lisbon, told them they could help themselves to alcohol and told them about sexual threesomes in which they had participated.

They said Crossley commented on their breasts, and grabbed their breasts and genitals over and under their clothing.

Crossley, 40, had turned down an offer from prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of six months in prison, followed by five years of probation and registration as a sexual offender.

He now faces up to 20 years in prison for each of the five counts of risk of injury to a minor.

Crossley, who now lives with his wife and three daughters in Mechanicsville, Va., tried to portray himself on the stand last week as a caring person, while his attorneys sought to convince the jury that the victims were lying about the dates the incidents took place to make it look like they were underage when they happened.

During his closing argument, defense attorney Thomas A. Pavilinic alleged that the investigation started after one of the girls had an argument with Crossley and that the alleged victims could not "take back" the accusations once the probe started.

During the trial, Pavilinic portrayed Crossley as a hardworking family man and called several character witnesses to vouch for him, including his wife, Danay, and the couple’s two daughters.

Prosecutor Theresa Anne Ferryman asked the jury on Monday to make their decision based on the facts and the applicable law, and less than a day later they had their decision — guilty on all five counts.

Pavilinic and defense attorney Max Simmons appeared shocked by the verdict Tuesday.

"We were surprised by the jury’s quick verdict," Pavilinic said. "There were things that the girls said that were just impossible."

Judge Barbara Bailey Jongbloed had dismissed an additional charge of second-degree sexual assault of a helpless person.

One of the young women had testified that she had been drinking alcohol when Crossley gave her an anti-anxiety medication and performed a sexual act on her, but Jongbloed dismissed the assault charge after the defense argued the state had not proven the alleged victim was physically helpless at the time of the incident.

Crossley has been free on a $150,000 bond since he was arrested in February 2016. His bond remains the same, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5.

m.shanahan@theday.com