NEW BOSTON, Texas-A man who molested the young son of a former girlfriend nearly a decade ago was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday after being found guilty by a Bowie County jury.
Dennis Michael Wolfenbarger Jr., 48, will not be eligible for parole, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards said. Wolfenbarger's jury deliberated about 10 minutes before returning a life sentence after hearing testimony and closing arguments in the trial's punishment phase.
The jury of eight men and four women found Wolfenbarger guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 6 years old. The offense includes a punishment range of 25 to 99 years or life in prison and there is no parole from any sentence imposed for the crime.
The boy, now 13, told investigators that Wolfenbarger first touched him inappropriately when he was approximately 5 years old and home sick from school one day at a house where he, his mother and Wolfenbarger once lived together in New Boston, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. The boy described multiple incidences of sexual and physical abuse by Wolfenbarger and testified that the defendant threatened to kill him and his mother if he told.
The boy disclosed the abuse in November 2016.
"The victim's bravery in coming forward and telling about the abuse he suffered was inspiring," Richards said. "We are thankful to the jury for sentencing this defendant to the harshest punishment allowed by law and know it sends a clear message to how the citizens of Bowie County feel about people who victimize young children."
Attorney Kelley Crisp noted that witnesses at Wolfenbarger's trial included women who alleged he sexually assaulted them as well.
"In contrast to most abusers the Bowie County District Attorney's Office prosecutes, Dennis Wolfenbarger is an equal opportunity predator. The jury heard evidence that he sexually abused a young boy and grown women. Our community has the right to be safe from predators life Wolfenbarger, and we are thankful for the sentence handed down today -life in prison without the possibility of parole."
Wolfenbarger was represented by the Bowie County Public Defender's Office.
Wolfenbarger, who had previously been free on bond, is being held in the Bowie County jail awaiting transport to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.