Montgomery man pleads guilty in Millbrook child rape case, gets 40 years

Steven Sarandon Barnes pleaded guilty to first-degree rape in Elmore County, closing in on a final courtroom resolution in a case that began with a Millbrook police investigation more than seven years ago. Barnes, now 35, agreed to serve 40 years and was set for formal sentencing on May 26.

The plea came on the first day of jury selection, ending a case that had remained pending since Barnes was arrested in April 2019. He was 28 at the time. Millbrook police investigated after a report from a Prattville hospital involving a sexually assaulted child, and officers later arrested Barnes in connection with the attack on a 5-year-old girl.

The child was first treated at Prattville Baptist Hospital and then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham for surgery tied to her injuries. Those medical steps placed the case squarely across central Alabama, moving from Millbrook police to local emergency care in Prattville and then to specialized treatment in Birmingham.

Elmore County District Attorney C.J. Robinson said the case was “one of the worst cases” he has seen in decades of law enforcement. Barnes’ plea resolved the rape charge that prosecutors had pursued through years of court proceedings, while the case itself had originally included additional allegations of aggravated child abuse, chemical endangerment of a child and marijuana possession.

For Autauga County and other River Region readers, the case stands out because it involved the Millbrook Police Department and Prattville Baptist Hospital, two institutions many families in the area know well. What began as an emergency-room report in 2019 ended years later with a guilty plea and a 40-year sentence agreement, leaving only the formal sentencing date before the case reaches its courtroom conclusion.