Appeals Court Backs Life Sentence In Bowie County Child Sex Abuse Case

TEXARKANA, Texas–A Texas appellate court on Monday ruled that a man convicted by a Bowie County jury last year of the continuous sexual abuse of a child should not get a new trial.

The Sixth District Court of Appeals in Texarkana rejected arguments from Jerry Lynn Jordan, 55, that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. Jordan was found guilty in November last year of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and indecency with a child by exposure.

The jury sentenced Jordan to life in prison on the continuous sexual abuse charge. There is no possibility for parole from any sentence imposed for the offense under Texas law, meaning Jordan is serving a sentence of life without parole.

The jury also leveled a maximum 10-year term against Jordan for indecency. At the conclusion of Jordan’s trial, Fifth District Judge Bill Miller ordered the terms to run consecutively.

Assistant District Attorney Christina Flanigan, who led the prosecution, said Monday in an email to TXK Today, “Justice was served by a Bowie County jury, and that verdict now stands affirmed.” 

“Although no prison sentence can undo their suffering, the court of appeals has reinforced the importance for standing up for victims of sexual abuse,” Flanigan said.

At the November trial, the jury heard testimony from two girls who had been repeatedly abused sexually by Jordan. The trial concerned the abuse of a girl who was just an 8-year-old when Jordan began abusing her, and from another girl who had been sexually abused by Jordan in Arkansas.

Jordan began sexually abusing the younger girl in 2019 at a residence in Arkansas with the abuse continuing into 2023 after the girl moved to a home in Wake Village, Texas, in Bowie County, according to a probable cause affidavit. The girl made an outcry regarding the abuse that led to a report to law enforcement in 2024.

A second, older victim testified that she was sexually abused by Jordan while living in Arkansas from 1999 to at least 2004.

Jordan is currently being held at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas.