NEW BOSTON, Texas: A jury deliberated about 10 minutes Friday before sentencing a man to life in prison for beating and sexually assaulting an adult family member in her bedroom in July 2016.
Clifton Littesam Poulton, aka “Kippie,” 45, has been threatening and physically assaultive toward the victim since both were children. The victim testified that she was so afraid of Poulton that she had a special key lock installed on her bedroom door at the house where she lived on Hazel Street in Texarkana, Texas, with her elderly grandmother.
The victim, who is four years older than Poulton, testified that she was sleeping when Poulton broke into her room the night of July 17, 2016, and attacked. Poulton hit the victim repeatedly in her neck and sexually assaulted her. The victim left the Hazel Street house after the assault and stayed in a Texarkana, Texas, hotel. In the early morning of July 19, the victim woke with widespread numbness and an inability to move. Her cries for help led others in the hotel to call police.
The woman suffered fractures in her neck which required surgery. While she was in the hospital, Poulton stole jewelry and purses from the woman’s bedroom.
Poulton then fled the country. He was arrested last year in Cambodia and brought back to Texas by U.S. marshals.
Members of Poulton’s family testified that he is violent and often threatens his family members.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards told the jury that Poulton has sexually assaulted other women, has a history of arson and drug dealing, and asked for a life sentence.
“Clifton Poulton sat emotionless in the courtroom while multiple women, most of them closely related to him, testified to heinous acts of physical and sexual abuse he inflicted on them,” Crisp said. “The evidence demonstrated that Poulton has no boundaries–no sense of decency or humanity about him. The level of extreme violence and the incestuous sexual assaults revealed a level of depravity that even the most experienced of us in law enforcement rarely see. The jury’s swift verdict of guilty and sentence of life imprisonment will, hopefully, serve as some measure of justice for those individuals who have suffered so much from him.”
Poulton was represented by Texarkana attorney Jeff Harrelson. The trial was presided over by 202nd District Judge John Tidwell.
