A jury that will deliberate the trial of accused child molester Genaro Ferro was selected Monday to hear testimony this week from the two girls he allegedly battered.

The 48-year-old former mechanic could face up to life in prison if convicted of two counts of battery on a child and two counts of molestation.

Ferro was arrested in October 2007 after the victims, sisters who were ages 6 and 8 at the time, told their mother he had molested them between June and September of that year.

The older sister told an investigator they stayed with Ferro for a month during that summer while their parents were in Honduras. She said he frequently molested her while she was asleep.

The younger sister said he warned the girls they would get in trouble if they told their mother, the Ferro arrest warrant says.

Ferro's attorney, Chief Assistant Public Defender Michael Strickland, declined to comment on the trial. Ferro, though, denied the allegations in a pair of 2007 phone calls, one between he and one of the girls and the other involving he and the girls' mother, according to the warrant. Both calls were staged by police investigators.

The girls are expected to testify via closed circuit camera Tuesday rather than confronting Ferro directly, a scenario that was allowed by Chief Monroe County Circuit Judge Luis Garcia.

Prosecutors expect to wrap up their case Wednesday, Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne said.

In addition to the girls, Dunne is expected to call to the stand their relatives, the nurse who examined them and Monroe County Sheriff's Office Detective Linda Mixon, who investigated the cases.

rsilk@keysnews.com