A Texarkana man was arrested earlier this month for allegedly molesting a 10-year-old girl he met on social media.
Calvin Delmonte Lyons III, 25, appeared with Assistant Public Defender Clayton Haas for a pre-indictment hearing before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell on Monday afternoon on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Haas did not ask for any additional hearings prior but asked that the case be referred to the Bowie County grand jury.
The grand jury will determine if the state has probable cause necessary to formally indict Lyons and bring the case to trial. Bowie County’s grand jury is scheduled to meet next month.
Lyons is accused of picking up the girl at the end of her driveway after 10 p.m. on the night of Jan. 10, according to a probable cause affidavit. The girl reported that she asked Lyons to take her to the home of a different man she had met online but that Lyons told her it was too late. Lyons allegedly took the girl to his home on Carver Circle in Texarkana, Texas.
The girl allegedly told investigators that she turned Lyons down when he asked for sex and the two of them went to sleep. The girl allegedly woke in the middle of the night to Lyons sexually assaulting her.
The next day, Lyons allegedly took the girl to the house of the man she had asked him to take her to the night before. A woman living in the residence on Brown Street allegedly told Texarkana, Texas, police officers that she thought the girl had arrived on foot at about noon Jan. 11.
On the morning of Jan. 11, the girl’s parents contacted the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office when they discovered she was missing. Friends of the girl’s from school allegedly told investigators that she planned to meet up with a male friend from Oklahoma that weekend. The girl was recovered Jan. 11 from the parking lot of the Bowie County Health Clinic on West 12th Street after the woman in the Brown Street home contacted police about her.
The girl allegedly told investigators that she met Lyons and the second man through the social media application “Meet Me.” According to the affidavit, the girl’s appearance is such that she is clearly a juvenile.
Lyons was arrested Jan. 13 and has been in Bowie County custody ever since. Bail is set at $150,000. If convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, Lyons faces five to 99 years or life in prison.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards are representing the state.
