NEW BOSTON, Texas–A man who fathered the child of a victim he began abusing when she was 10 and he was 38 was sentenced to six life sentences Thursday with one term being life without parole.
Christopher Darrell Brown, 46, was convicted Wednesday by the jury of four men and eight women of the continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 and five additional counts of sexual assault of a child after less than 15 minutes of deliberations. Thursday the jury returned to the Bowie County courthouse in New Boston to decide the punishment Brown should receive for his sexually predatory conduct. After hearing some additional testimony and arguments, the jury returned with maximum terms and maximum $10,000 fines on each count.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp, who prosecuted Brown along with Assistant D.A. Lauren Richards, said that the verdict is “noteworthy for both the speed with which it was rendered and the severity of the punishment it metes out” and that the decision shows “the utter disdain our county citizens have for the crime of continuous sexual abuse of a child.”
Brown, who was married to a close relative of the girl’s, lived with her in the same house at two different Texarkana, Texas, residences. He began touching her when she was 10 and the sexual assaults escalated to rape, resulting in a pregnancy when the victim was just 14. DNA evidence analyzed in 2021 proved Brown is the biological father of the victim’s young child.
In a statement she read aloud in court, the victim told Brown that he not only devastated her life, but “ruined a home and a family,” noting that he manipulated her mother and darkened the lives of her siblings.She said there were times she thought of ending her own life but instead decided to fight.
“I fought for my 10-year-old self, 14-year-old self and, standing before you today, 18 years old still fighting for justice,” the victim said.
She added that in life, “everyone is a canvas” and that before he arrived to throw black paint on it, her canvas was full of color. She also told Brown that her story does not end with his conviction and life imprisonment.
Prior to the trial, Crisp and Richards filed a motion seeking to enhance the punishment range Brown faced on the sexual assaults from the standard two to 20 years for a second-degree felony to the five to 99 years or life applied in first-degree felonies.
Judge John Tidwell of the 202nd District of Texas also granted a motion to stack the sentences so that Brown must serve them one after the other.
Crisp thanked the jury for their service and noted the many contributions of other public servants.
“The Bowie County District Attorney’s Office appreciates the work of the team of law enforcement professionals who investigated this case; the Texarkana Children’s
Advocacy Center which assisted in its prosecution; and the victim herself, who bravely faced her abuser in open court.”
Brown will be held in the Bowie County jail until he is transported to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice where he is expected to spend the remainder of his life.
