Waco man sentenced to 30 years in 2017 sexual assault of 6-year-old China Spring girl
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - UPDATE: A Waco man who tattooed the name of his 6-year-old sexual assault victim on his arm near the names of his two children was sentenced to 30 years in prison Wednesday.
A 474th State District Court jury deliberated 20 minutes before determining punishment for Thomas Arthur Stewart. The jury convicted him of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by contact after 2 ½ hours of deliberations.
Jurors recommended that Judge Alan Bennett sentence the 38-year-old Stewart to 25 years in prison on the first count and five years in prison on the second.
Bennett ordered Stewart to serve the sentences consecutively, for a total of 30 years. He must be given credit for serving at least half of the 30-year term before he can seek parole.
Stewart, who denied the accusations but admitted to officers that he fantasizes about sexually abusing young children, rejected a 12-year plea offer before trial from prosecutors Jessica Washington and Will Hix.
He faced up to life in prison on the aggravated count and up to 20 years in prison on the indecency charge.
Hix and Washington left Stewart’s punishment to the jury’s discretion, but Hix told the panel that their verdict should send a strong message of deterrence to other would-be offenders and to the public.
Hix told jurors in closing statements that the trial offered them “incredibly unique insight” into the mind of a child molester through evidence that Stewart and another man were caught in 2014 in a computer chatroom talking in hauntingly graphic terms about the other man’s abuse of a 3-year-old girl.
Stewart was investigated but not charged in that incident. He assaulted the former China Spring girl three years later.
Jurors convicted Stewart of sexually assaulting the daughter of a woman with whom he previously had a dating relationship who allowed him to live with her, her daughter and her new boyfriend at their home in China Spring.
The girl, who is now 14 and living near Wichita Falls, testified Tuesday he sexually assaulted her and forced her hand around his penis while they shared a bed because the family’s spare bedroom had not been set up yet. Trial testimony showed the abuse occurred once, but Stewart lived there four months after the girl reported the assault.
While the girl testified she could not remember if the abuse involved penetration, the girl told a nurse and a forensic examiner in 2017 that Stewart hurt her by penetrating her with his finger.
“We have grown increasingly thankful that the jurors in McLennan County were able to see past the prolonged delays and the inevitable fading of a child’s memory, ultimately recognizing the truth and returning a just verdict,” Hix and Washington said in a joint statement after the three-day trial.
Stewart’s attorney, Abel Reyna, told jurors in summations that Stewart volunteered to officers that he and the girl shared a bed, saying if Stewart were guilty of abuse, why would he admit sleeping in the same bed with the young girl.
Hix countered that Stewart’s admitted attraction to young children coupled with his sharing a bed with her led to the inevitable sexual abuse of the girl.
“If you match desire with opportunity, you get abuse,” Hix said.
Reyna said after trial that he and Stewart are disappointed in the outcome.
“However, we sincerely appreciate this jury’s time and careful deliberation on this case,” Reyna said. “We respect their verdict and will continue our fight in the appellate courts.”
Raymond Perry, a sergeant with the Office of Inspector General, testified Tuesday he was alerted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cyber-link tip line about improper computer messages in 2014 between Stewart and another man.
Perry said Stewart was living in Altus, Okla., at the time and admitted to sending and receiving the graphic messages about the sexual abuse of a 3-year-old child by someone with the user name Marine 14.
Marine 14 said he was abusing a young child and Stewart asked him to send him pictures. Marine 14 described in explicit detail the things he was doing to the girl, prompting Stewart to say, “Is she liking it? I wish I could hear her. That would be so sexy.”
Perry contacted Stewart, who admitted to taking part in the messages, but said it was “like fantasy talk.”
Perry said he closed out the case with no arrest after determining that Stewart didn’t have access to children at the time.
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