NEW BOSTON, Texas-A Bowie County man who sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl in September 2015 was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences at the end of a one-day trial Wednesday.
Larry Thomas Webb, 59, was found guilty of one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child and guilty of one count of indecency with a child by contact. Because of a prior 1981 conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child in Dallas County, Webb's punishment included mandatory life sentences, which 5th District Judge Bill Miller ordered to run consecutively at the request of Assistant District Attorneys Lauren Richards and Kelley Crisp.
The jury of six men and six women deliberated for several hours Wednesday evening before finding Webb guilty of two of four felony counts levied against him for the Sept. 20, 2015, assault. The jury returned not-guilty verdicts on single counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by contact.
The girl, now 15, testified that she thought of Webb, who is related to her by marriage, as a grandfather and referred to him as "Pops" before the attack. The girl said she went to spend the night at Webb's home in Bowie County near Hooks, Texas, and New Boston, Texas, about a week after her 14th birthday.
"He took her to dinner, he bought her a necklace and then he sexually assaulted her in every way possible," Richards said in closing arguments. "He said, 'I'll kill you and anyone you tell.'"
The victim testified she grabbed Webb's cordless phone after he fell asleep, ran outside, hid under a boat parked in the yard and called her mother. The girl's mother, who was living 30 minutes away in Texarkana, Ark., testified she told her daughter to run for help and called 911 when the line went dead.
Webb's neighbor, Jessica McDonald, testified that she was in bed when her son woke her after midnight Sept. 20 to tell her and her husband that someone was banging on the windows. McDonald said she opened her door to a terrified teen who screamed, "He raped me, he raped me."
When Bowie County Sheriff's Deputy Randall Baggett knocked on Webb's door, Webb opened it shirtless, wearing only a pair of pajama pants. Baggett and other deputies testified that when they asked Webb if he knew why they were there, he immediately answered that the victim must be claiming he assaulted her. Crisp argued to the jury that the average person would likely conclude officers appearing in the night were present because of a death or a catastrophe, not because of a criminal allegation.
A DNA analyst with the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Garland, Texas, testified that DNA from Webb's skin was found on the girl's bra and in her panties.
Texarkana lawyer Butch Dunbar, who represented Webb, argued the girl gave conflicting accounts that cast doubt on Webb's guilt.
In closing arguments, Crisp told the jury the victim has suffered the "soul-crushing betrayal of rape."
"When the victim took the stand, she said, 'I used to call him Pops,' but she doesn't call him that anymore," Crisp argued. "As a child you always look forward to your birthday, you count down the days and everyone celebrates it. There is cake, and there is family. You look forward to opening your presents. Do you know what the victim got? She got raped for her birthday.
"For the rest of her life she will associate this rape with her birthday."