Carlos Ojeda used candy to lure his victims to the front of his bus and sexually abuse them.

Ojeda, 74, who had been a bus driver for special needs children since 2007, chose four little girls who had intellectual disabilities and behavioral issues, knowing they would be less likely to tell anyone else what he had done. Two of the girls he chose struggled with verbal communication.

But on April 8, 2016, another student on the bus saw Ojeda touch two of the girls, and he reported it to his counselor.

Ojeda was questioned by law enforcement and admitted to touching a total of four children on his bus, dating back to 2013. He was charged with four counts of lewd molestation.

At Ojeda’s sentencing hearing August 17, Assistant State Attorney Mikaela Perry played the video footage from Ojeda’s bus for Judge Roddenbery.

The video shows Ojeda getting a victim’s attention with candy, coaxing her to the front of the bus and restraining her as he touched her inappropriately.

One of the victims’ fathers addressed the judge, asking him to sentence Ojeda to the max.

“We trusted him with our little girl,” he said. “I would like him to pay for what he did.”

Another parent wrote the judge a letter.

“He took part of her innocence and our tranquility,” the letter read. “He damaged our girl.”

Perry reminded the court that this was every parent’s worst nightmare.

“He was in a position to take care of them. Instead of protecting them and keeping them safe, he did the most horrible thing he could do to a little girl,” she said. “He deserves not a day less than life in prison for what he did to these kids. He deserves it for every single little girl he took advantage of.”

Roddenbery sentenced Ojeda to life on all four counts.

After the sentencing hearing, State Attorney Brian Haas said he was pleased with the life sentence.

“The children victimized by Ojeda will suffer from this for the rest of their lives,” Haas said. “It is most appropriate that Ojeda will also serve a life sentence and will never hurt another child.”

Before leaving the courtroom, Ojeda apologized to the families.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Noah Cannon heard a truck door close and the engine start to rev.

Seconds later, he saw Erick Monk – the suspect he and five other deputies were serving a warrant to – come barreling around the corner in a pickup truck. Cannon and the other deputies shouted commands for Monk to stop the vehicle – he didn’t.

Cannon and another deputy had to jump out of the way to avoid being struck.

A jury found Monk guilty Wednesday of two counts of attempted first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer and resisting officers with force while armed. He faces a mandatory life sentence, which will be imposed September 22.

Assistant State Attorney Stephanie Weil took jurors back to the early morning hours of March 3, 2016, around 1 a.m.

Six deputies surrounded Monk’s house, which is situated on the edge of an orange grove, and had their weapons drawn with flashlights on as they exited the groves and stepped on to his property. As they approached the house, they heard movement by the front gate.

The deputies immediately identified themselves as members of PCSO and said they were there to arrest Monk, who immediately began cursing and demanding they leave his property. He then ran away from the gate and into the dark.

As the deputies then set up a perimeter around his house, Cannon heard the truck door slam and its engine rev up.

“The truck turned toward me and the engine revved,” Cannon said from the witness stand. “He drove directly at me.”

Cannon said he was getting ready to fire his weapon at Monk when he saw another deputy behind the truck and in his line of sight. That’s when Cannon did the only thing he was able to: jump out of the truck’s path.

“If I hadn’t jumped out of the way, I would have been hit,” he said.

As Monk continued driving the vehicle and rounded another corner of the house, he came up on PCSO Deputy Dustin Freeman.

“His headlights followed me as I tried to move out of the way. He was veering off the path and driving toward me as I was trying to run,” Freeman said from the stand. “I could see nothing but headlights on me once he came around the corner. I thought he was going to run me over.”

“I was afraid he was going to kill me or one of my partners,” he said.

That’s when, Freeman said, he raised his weapon and fired three rounds at the vehicle in an attempt to stop the threat. As soon as the first shot was fired, Freeman watched as Monk immediately turned the truck away from Freeman.

Monk lost control of the vehicle and struck a citrus tree. He then exited the truck and got on his knees, where the deputies were able to contain him.

During the trial, Monk took the stand, claiming he didn’t know the men on his property were deputies because he never heard the identify themselves. ASA Weil reminded Monk of his own father’s testimony: The deputies’ yells were loud enough for his father, who is hard of hearing, to have heard who they were from the inside of the house.

Monk then claimed he was able to see their patrol cars, which were parked 150 yards away and had all their lights turned off, but he did not see the deputies emerge from the orange groves with flashlights.

In a last attempt to defend himself, Monk said that the mother of his son’s child was staying in the shed with him and had an active warrant out for her arrest. The reason why he got in the vehicle was to lure deputies away from her – not to harm them in any way.

“Every single deputy told you they believed either their life or somebody else’s life was in danger. Could they all be mistaken?” Weil asked jurors. “The only source of conflict in this entire trial is the testimony of Monk – he is not credible.”