Testimony to begin for man accused of assault

Calvin Lyons
Calvin Lyons
NEW BOSTON, Texas - A jury was selected Tuesday to decide the fate of a Bowie County man accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl he met online.

Calvin Delmonte Lyons III, 26, is charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child for allegedly molesting the girl in January 2019. Law enforcement became involved Jan. 12, 2019, after the alleged victim's parents realized the girl was missing, according to a probable cause affidavit.

When the girl didn't come when called to breakfast shortly after 9 a.m. that Saturday morning, her parents checked her bedroom and were alarmed to discover she was not there.

After calling the Bowie County Sheriff's Office for help, the parents discovered the girl's cellphone and electronic tablet were missing. The parents allegedly reported they had taken the devices away from the girl previously as punishment. Investigators were unable to track the devices because they were not being used.

Investigators reached out to school friends of the girl, who allegedly reported that she had spoken of meeting an adult male friend that weekend. Shortly before 7 p.m. on Jan. 12, the girl was found after a woman called Texarkana, Texas, police. She turned the girl over to the authorities in the parking lot of the Bowie County Health Clinic on 12th Street.

The girl allegedly reported that she had waited for her parents to go to sleep on the night of Jan. 11 and met a man she'd met through the social media application "Meet Me." The girl alleged that she asked the man, identified later as Lyons, to take her to the home of another man she'd met through the "Meet Me" app. Lyons allegedly told her it was too late and instead took her to his home on Carver Circle in Texarkana, Texas.

The girl allegedly told investigators Lyons asked her to have sex but she declined and the two went to sleep. The girl allegedly said she woke in the night to find Lyons sodomizing her.

Around noon on Jan. 12, the girl allegedly persuaded Lyons to take her to an address on Brown Street in Texarkana, Texas, the home of the second man she met online. A woman in the home realized officials were searching for the girl, and she called police and drove her to the health clinic's parking lot.

"At the time of this affidavit, it is evident that Calvin Lyons III decided to pick up the juvenile victim from her driveway, drove her to his residence and had (sex) with the victim knowing she was a juvenile," the affidavit states. "After seeing (the alleged victim) in person, it was apparent she could not be mistaken to be as old as 16 years of age."

Lyons has been in jail since his arrest Jan. 13, 2019, with bail set at $150,000. He is represented by Texarkana lawyer Josh Potter. First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards are prosecuting. A jury of eight women and four men was chosen Tuesday before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell.

Testimony is expected to begin this morning at the Bowie County courthouse in New Boston. If convicted, Lyons faces five to 99 years or life in prison.

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