NEW BOSTON, Texas–Twelve Bowie County citizens were chosen Tuesday to decide the case of a man with convictions for sex offenses in California and Arkansas who now stands accused of attacking a vulnerable Texarkana woman in her home in 2021.
Everick Lovosier Monk, 60, is charged with burglary of a habitation with intent to commit another felony and aggravated sexual assault in connection with an Oct. 26, 2021, break-in at an apartment 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 armed with a knife.
She reportedly told police 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.
When investigators arrived, they noted a torn adult diaper on the bed and a piece of it on the floor. 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, which is still pending.
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. His 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. The victim was attacked in her home during the daytime hours in 1993.
The notice includes additional accounts of sexual and non-sexual criminal conduct by Monk, including while an inmate in the Arkansas Department of Corrections serving time for raping the elderly woman in 1993.
Monk is facing a possible life sentence if found guilty this week. The burglary and sexual assault charges in Bowie County are both punishable by five to 99 or life. However, prosecutors have filed a notice of enhancement in the case based on prior felony convictions which, if found by the jury to be true prior offenses, could result in an automatic life sentence.
Judge John Tidwell of the 202nd District Court is presiding over the trial. Crisp and Assistant District Attorney Lauren Richards are representing the state. Monk is represented by the Bowie County Public Defender’s Office.
Opening arguments and testimony are expected to begin Wednesday morning at the Bowie County courthouse in New Boston.
