NEW BOSTON, Texas: A Bowie County jury sentenced a Texarkana, Texas, man to 65 years in prison Wednesday for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl he met through a social media app.
Calvin Delmonte Lyons III, 26, picked the girl up from her home in rural Bowie County the night of Jan. 11, 2019. The following morning the girl’s parents called 911 when they discovered she was missing, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Local law enforcement agencies immediately sent out alerts and photos of the girl were circulated on social media and through news outlets throughout the day Jan. 12, 2019. A woman called Texarkana, Texas, police the afternoon of Jan. 12, 2019, to report that the girl was with her and arranged to meet officers with the child at a local health center.
Texarkana, Texas, police and Bowie County Sheriff’s Office investigators took the girl to a local hospital where she underwent a sexual assault examination.
The girl reported that she met Lyons on the app “Meet Me” the day before he picked her up from her home. Lyons took the girl to his home in Texarkana, Texas, where he sexually abused her. Later that day, Lyons took the girl to the home of a friend of the girl’s in Texarkana, Texas, and a person in the home recognized the girl from media reports.
“The evidence demonstrated that Lyons rapes children and beats and strangles women. Because of the parole law applicable to the charges against Lyons, the jury effectively sentenced him to life in prison,” Crisp said. “In this case, Lyons will not become eligible for parole until the actual time served equals one-half of the sentence imposed or 30 years, whichever is less.”
