A 4-year-old girl took the stand in Warren County Circuit Court Monday, pointing out for the court a man she said molested her a year ago.

She identified Thomas E. Tubbs, of 906 National St., as the man who molested her Dec. 17 and said she told her mother after it happened.

Tubbs, 56, was convicted in 1993 of raping a 10-year-old girl and served 10 years of a 25-year prison sentence.

In Monday’s action, Judge Isadore Patrick took the unusual step of clearing the courtroom of all except legal teams, the press and jurors before the girl took the stand for less than 10 minutes. About a dozen spectators waited in the courthouse hallways.

Tubbs is accused of “illegal touching of a child” for lustful purposes. The trial that began Monday was expected to conclude with a verdict this afternoon or evening.

If found guilty, Tubbs faces 15 years in prison without possibility of parole or earned early release.

Tubbs’ defense attorney, Louis Field, told the pool of prospective jurors that Patrick had allowed Tubbs’ previous conviction to be introduced into evidence, but “just because he did that you may not infer that he committed this crime.”

Later, after the jury of six men and six women, with one man as an alternate, were sworn in, Assistant District Attorney Dewey Arthur said in his opening statement that Tubbs had made two different statements to police about what happened with the girl, then 3, and concocted an implausible story to cover up the truth.

Field deferred his opening statement until later.

Witness testimony began with the child’s mother testifying that the girl told her Tubbs had touched her and saying the child pointed to her private parts when she was asked where on her body. The mother then took her to the hospital, where an examination revealed no physical evidence of abuse.

Also testifying were police investigators, one of whom took the official statements of the child, her mother and Tubbs.

District Attorney Ricky Smith played Tubbs’ taped interrogation for jurors, who were provided with transcribed copies of the difficult-to-hear recording.

In a pretrial competency hearing, in which the judge and the attorneys asked the child questions, Patrick ruled she did not “have an understanding that she can verbalize to the court as to what is truthful and what is not,” and that she was not competent to testify. After meeting with Smith, Arthur and Field in his chambers, he reversed the decision and allowed her to take the stand.