A Bowie County jury handed down two life sentences Thursday for a man accused of raping a 12-year-old girl at her New Boston, Texas, home in 2011.
Brodrick Walker, 28, appeared shocked as 102nd District Judge Bobby Lockhart read the jury’s two guilty verdicts in open court late Thursday morning. The jury of six men and six women deliberated about 20 minutes. It took them about half an hour Thursday afternoon to sentence Walker to two life sentences.
The victim’s mother testified Wednesday that she invited Walker to visit her on the night of Dec. 15, 2011. She said her husband had left the house after a fight and that she and Walker had sex in her bedroom. After having sex with the victim’s mother, Walker hung around and played video games with the mother’s son and another man.
The victim testified Walker came into her dark bedroom at about 6 a.m. and sexually assaulted her.
“I felt disgusting and nasty so I took a bath,” the girl, now 15, testified Wednesday.
The girl said Walker threatened to harm her if she told but that she decided to tell her mother anyway. The mother immediately called police and took her daughter to a local emergency room where a sexual assault examination was performed.
Assistant District Attorneys Kelley Crisp and Lauren Richards argued that while the mother’s behavior with Walker might raise eyebrows, she addressed the situation with her daughter appropriately.
“Don’t hold her mother’s mistakes against that little girl,” Richards argued in closing remarks.
Crisp told the jury Walker has a prior felony conviction for theft of a firearm. Arkansas court records show Walker has been convicted of felonies related to theft as well.
Walker’s family was visibly upset following the jury’s finding of guilt and after his sentences were announced. Lockhart ordered that Walker will serve the terms at the same time. Walker is being held in the Bowie County jail until he is transported to a unit in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division.
