NEW BOSTON, Texas–A repeat sex offender with a history of preying on vulnerable women was sentenced to life in prison Thursday for sexually assaulting a disabled Texarkana woman after sneaking into her home in 2021.
Everick Lovosier Monk, 60, was convicted of burglary of a habitation with intent to commit another felony and aggravated sexual assault in connection with an Oct. 26, 2021, break-in at a house in the 200 block of N. Circle Drive in Texarkana, Texas. The woman, who had recently had a stroke, told police that she woke to find Monk in her bedroom.
First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp said the jury was “blazing fast” in returning a guilty verdict and that they spent little time deciding on the maximum punishment in the sentencing phase of the trial.
During Crisp’s opening argument in the sentencing phase, Monk shouted, “Fuck you,” and offerend a profane invitation involving his genitals before he was removed from the courtroom.
Crisp said the wheelchair-bound victim testified bravely on her 60th birthday Wednesday before the jury.
“Women have no value to him and he came in here thinking they would have no value to the jury,” Crisp said. “The system worked for her.”
Crisp praised the work of law enforcement who quickly responded and investigated the case, the hospital staff “who gave her dignity,” the staff in her office, including her co-counsel, Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards, and the jury.
“She lives with the shame of what he did to her and he has shown none,” Crisp said, referring to testimony Thursday from Monk in which he created an incredible account of the attack.
Judge John Tidwell of the 202nd District Court of Texas found that Monk’s conduct in Bowie County was so similar to previous sex offenses, particularly one involving a 74-year-old woman in Arkansas, that a mandatory life sentence was appropriate.
“I’m thrilled for the victim and her family,” Crisp said. “I hope this shows that victims can have faith in our system.”
When she called police, the victim told them someone she knew as “Eric” had been harassing her, knocking on her door and asking to come in for about a week but she had consistently rebuffed his advances and refused to let him in her home.
The woman was tearful, bloody and bruised when officers arrived. Monk was arrested nearby a short time later and charged with an additional crime, evading arrest in a vehicle.
Fourteen days before his arrest in Texarkana, Monk had been released on bond in Columbia County, Arkansas, for failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements. Monk’s history of sexual misconduct reaches back nearly four decades, according to a notice filed by First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp in Bowie County.
In 1985, Monk was arrested for rape in San Diego involving a woman he’d lured to his home from a bus stop with the promise of a meal, according to the notice. In 1987, Monk was found guilty in San Diego of sexually abusing a 13-year-old girl whose mother walked in during an assault.
In 1992, Monk was arrested for burglary of a habitation and attempted rape in Columbia County, Arkansas, in a case with a similar pattern of allegations to those he is on trial for this week. In that case, Monk reportedly knocked on the door of a woman who’d previously refused to spend time with him, leading her to leave her home through a back door, arm herself with a wooden post and call police.
Monk was gone when officers arrived but after they left, the woman found him hiding beneath her bed. He was later convicted of “criminal trespass and criminal attempt,” according to the notice.
In 1994, Monk was convicted by a jury in Pulaski County, Arkansas, of rape and other crimes involving a 74-year-old woman who was attacked after answering her door in a bathrobe.
Monk was represented by the Bowie County Public Defender’s Office.
