TEXARKANA, Texas–A man who allegedly shoved a 6-year-old boy who was trying to protect his mother from an unwanted sexual advance and a physical assault is facing a felony charge of injury to a child in Bowie County.
Earnest Deon Tucker, 32, allegedly pulled down his pants and asked a woman if she wanted to perform a sex act on him in view and earshot of her elementary-school-age child on Jan. 27 at a residence in the 900 block of Bowie Street in Texarkana, according to court records. The mother reported that she shoved Tucker to get him away from her and he allegedly responded by punching her with a closed fist in her face, knocking her to the ground.
The boy reportedly told a forensic interviewer that after seeing the interaction, “I went after him,” according to court filings.
Tucker allegedly shoved the young boy into a table, leaving a mark on his back, before the child and his mom were able to escape and call police. Tucker was arrested a short time later during a traffic stop on an outstanding warrant for failure to appear at a court date in November in Bowie County on a state jail felony charge of evading arrest.
New charges of felony injury to a child, misdemeanor assault with bodily injury and failure to identify at the time of arrest are now also pending. If convicted of injury to a child, Tucker faces two to ten years in a Texas prison.
The misdemeanor assault charge levied in connection with the alleged assault of the boy’s mother is punishable by up to a year in the county jail. He faces the same penalty if found guilty of misdemeanor failure to identify during the traffic stop Jan. 27 that ended with his arrest.
Court records show that Tucker pleaded guilty to a felony charge of evading arrest with prior convictions in August 2022 at a hearing before 5th District Judge Bill Miller. At that time, Tucker was free on a $3,000 bond and Miller ordered a presentence investigation, standard operating procedure when a defendant might receive a term of probation at sentencing.
But Tucker failed to appear for sentencing Nov. 14, 2022, and a warrant was issued,
He is currently being held in the Bowie County jail. Bail on the new charges total $22,000, however, his bond was revoked in the evading case when he failed to appear for sentencing in November so it is unlikely he will be released even if his bond on the new charges is posted.
