Posted on 01/24/2006 11:19:22 AM PST by Dubya
FORT WORTH — Jeremiah Sexton sat stoic in a courtroom this morning as prosecutors described him as depraved and told a jury that Sexton snatched a 9-year-old girl walking to school and sexually assaulted her.
In a blue suit and yellow tie, Sexton stared straight ahead even as the girl’s mother yelled at him and had to be restrained from attacking him.
Sexton, 23, of Springtown, is charged with aggravated kidnapping and aggravated sexual assault and his trial began this morning.
“He started choking her and telling her that he was going to kill her if she didn’t do what she wanted,” Prosecutors Mitch Poe said in his opening arguments.
Grand Prairie Police Officer Oscar Garcia told the court how he caught Sexton assaulting the 9-year-old girl while patrolling an apartment complex, before Sexton led him on a 10-minute car-chase into Arlington.
A video of the chase, filmed by the cruiser’s dashboard camera, showed Sexton’s car crash into a mini-van and a school bus before the officer ordered him to the ground. Then the video showed the girl climb out of the driver’s door, covering herself with her coat.
“She said she was asking for the angels to protect her,” Garcia said. “I told her I was there to protect her. I told her this man was never going to hurt her again.”
Sexton was arrested in February after Garcia noticed what he thought was a man and a prostitute in a parked car at about 8:25 a.m. The girl had been abducted as she walked to Anderson Elementary School about 8 a.m.
Sexton was then linked to a similar case in Sept. 2004, in which a 7-year-old girl was abducted and sexually assaulted while walking to Knox Elementary.
Prosecutor Bruce Fyfe said that the charges related to the 9-year-old girl’s case could be enough to put Sexton in prison for life, but the 7-year-old may testify during sentencing, if Sexton is convicted.
Prosecutors Fyfe and Poe called three witnesses — Garcia, the girl and the doctor who examined her after the incident — this morning and then rested their case after two hours of testimony.
The girl, who the Star-Telegram is not identifying, said the suspect ordered her to take her clothes off and took pictures of her with his cellphone, and then touched her and assaulted her. She said she refused at first.
“But I had to because I was scared he might hurt me,” she said. “He said he would hurt me.”
The girl said that she was “really happy” when the officer found them, but the suspect was not.
“He got mad and then he started driving really fast,” she said. “He said it was all my fault and started calling me names.”
She pointed to Sexton’s picture and told the jury that he was the man who kidnapped her.
Several spectators in the gallery cried during the testimony, which was sometimes graphic.
Closing arguments are slated for after lunch in Judge Wayne Salvant’s court and then the jury will begin deliberations.
Sexton’s attorney, Keith McKay, asked few questions of the witnesses and chose not to call any witnesses of his own. Sexton told the judge that he declined to testify on his own behalf.
After his arrest, a history of similar behavior in Kansas surfaced. He was convicted of fondling four girls, congregants at his baptist church in Cheney, Kansas, over a nine-month period when he was 17. Sexton was not required by law to register as a sex offer when he moved to Texas, officials said last year.
Mark Agee, (817) 548-5421 rmagee@star-telegram.com
Put this guy in the cell with "Big Bubba".
Let's see if a Texas judge and jury deals with this pervert as leniently as those judges from Vermont and Massachusetts.
For life.
We have rope. Knowing TX juries like I do, they are already lamenting the fact they can not use the tree in front of the courthouse.
Life in prison???
He was bloody caught in the act by an officer. Execute him.Be it hanging, lethal injection, crucifiction, electrocution, firing squad, that doesn't matter.
Put this rabid animal down. Do not give him the chance to escape or get out on patrol so he can destroy yet another little girl.
Yup. He's toast.
"After his arrest, a history of similar behavior in Kansas surfaced..... Sexton was not required by law to register as a sex offer when he moved to Texas, officials said last year. "
Moved to Texas, ey? Not a smart fellow is he.
Should have picked NY or CA.
Started young and is now escalating. Put him down like a rabid dog, before he starts killing.
Instead they'll lock him up for a few years and release him older, smarter and meaner. Geez, I hate the "justice" system.
Hang 'em High ~ Bump!
Hope he does a long stretch of hard time.
Hey Texas! Vermont is watching. Show'em how it's done......
I am sure Bubba will deal with him.
No here's pic of Bubba's new bestest friend.
How does such a young human being (23) become so broken at such an early age, so as to sexually assault a 9 year old?
Boggles the mind.
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