Special to the Enquirer  

A Hartselle man was convicted this week by a Morgan County jury rape in the first and second degrees and incest.  

Brian Matthew Mills, 40, of Lee Road, now faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. 

In 2019, the Morgan County Department of Human Resources received an anonymous tip regarding inappropriate text messages sent by Mills to a juvenile victim. Following an investigation by the Decatur Police Department, Detective Jarrod Birchfield arrested Mills, a convicted sex offender, for rape and incest. 

Jurors this week heard testimony from the victim in this case, as well as from a previous victim. Jurors also saw a multitude of text messages wherein Mills demanded the victim have sex with him, referred to her as his wife and told her he wanted to get her pregnant. 

After the verdict, Lewis praised the courage of the victim in testifying in this case, saying, “I am grateful to the jury for their service, and very pleased that the victim received justice.” 

Mills will be sentenced by Brown later this year. The three-day trial was presided over by Judge Stephen F. Brown. The case was prosecuted by assistant district attorney Joe Lewis.