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West Jordan • After close to 16 hours of deliberation over two days, a jury late Thursday afternoon convicted a former Canyons School District bus driver of 19 counts of molesting two of his young passengers, but found him not guilty of 14 other counts.

John Martin Carrell, 62, was on trial in 3rd District Court on 33 counts of first-degree felony aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Twenty-three of the counts are tied to alleged acts with the girl in the first of two sets of videos. Another 10 counts are related to a second girl.

Both girls were special needs students at Altara Elementary School students in Sandy and were 5 years old when the alleged offenses took place in March and April 2014.

Carrell was stoic as Judge L. Douglas Hogan read aloud each count in the split verdict individually. Many in the packed courtroom began to cry as Hogan recited the findings.

"He's disappointed obviously, but John accepts the verdict," defense attorney Ron Yengich said. "That's what you do in a country that believes in the jury system."

Carrell, a grandfather of 22, will be sentenced to prison for up to life when he is sentenced Sept. 24 by Hogan.

Each count carries a prison term of 15 years to life, although a judge can reduce the bottom end of the term to six years, Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Nathan Evershed said.

Evershed said prosecutors were "satisfied" with the jurors' decision and that he was not surprised that they determined Carrell guilty on some counts and not guilty on others. He said he believed they had carefully reviewed each of the 33 allegations and considered both the courtroom testimony and the 2.5 hours of bus surveillance tape before reaching a conclusion.

"I think the jury saw a pattern," he said. "I think it's pretty clear when you combine the testimony to the surveillance video as to what happens."

Yengich expressed some initial surprise at the "interesting" verdict, which he said didn't entirely jibe with arguments from either side, but said lawyers can only provide jurors with a blueprint of the case to follow.

"The building may not come out looking like we think it should," he said. "But that's the beauty of it, and sometimes jurors can see things that lawyers and judges and the media can't."

Carrell's family walked silently through the courthouse halls after the verdict and didn't respond to requests for comment from reporters. One person with the family handed out small cards bearing the likeness of Jesus Christ and the quotation "The truth will set you free."

The jury of five women and three men was handed the case about midday Wednesday, after hearing about a week of testimony. The verdict finally came a little after 5 p.m. Thursday.

Salt Lake County prosecutors claimed surveillance video from Carrell's bus shows him holding one of the girls between his legs as he sits in the driver's seat and touching her genitals. In other videos, Carrell also lingers for more than a minute over both girls as he helps them in and out of safety harnesses. With other children, Carrell needed only a few seconds to get them in and out of their seats.

Prosecutors claimed the video corroborated the testimony of one of the girls, now 6, who testified that Carrell molested her.

"He touches my peepee," the girl told the jury, saying that Carrell touched her genitals "when I sit on his lap, when I get on his bus, or I'm waiting for my teacher to come."

But the girl told defense attorney Ronald Yengich on cross-examination that her therapist had told her what to say.

Therapist Lydia Midgley, however, testified that she never told the girl what had happened.

The Salt Lake Tribune does not identify juveniles or adults who are the alleged victims of sexual abuse.

Yengich contends that prosecutors and other well-meaning adults, including the loving parents of both girls, have got it wrong.

The videos, he said, are like a movie trailer that misrepresent the entirety of the film.

"We all want to protect children, but we can overstate what they say and over-assume what they mean," Yengich said during closing arguments Wednesday.

Yengich said the videos don't show any specific evidence of sexual assault, and that jurors were to decide if prosecutors have proved that Carrell's hugs, touches, pats and hair pulls were actions that appeared to fuel sexual desire or gratification.

Carrell resigned from his job after he was put on administrative leave in April 2014 in response to the initial abuse allegations.

jdobner@sltrib.com