NEW BOSTON, Texas -A Bowie County jury found a Texarkana man guilty Wednesday of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
The jury of seven men and five women was instructed by 202nd District Judge John Tidwell to return to the courthouse Thursday morning to hear testimony concerning the punishment Quartshezz Lewis, 31, should receive.
Lewis faces 25 to 99 years or life in prison and there is no parole from any sentence imposed for continuous sexual abuse of a child.
The jury found Lewis guilty of molesting a girl, now 11, who was 6 when the abuse occurred in 2013 and 2014 in a Texarkana, Texas, apartment where she stayed with a relative when her mother worked nights at a nursing home. The jury also heard testimony from a second girl, now 14, who provided a very similar account.
The two girls do not know each other.
One is connected to Lewis because of his relationship with a close relative of her mother and the other is connected to Lewis through his extended family.
Read tomorrow's online edition for a full account of the first phase of Lewis' trial.