A Texarkana, Texas, man accused of sexually abusing three girls, two of them relatives, was set for an April jury trial this week.
Randal Lee Wright, 57, appeared Tuesday before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell with Texarkana lawyer Danny Cook at the Bi-State Justice Center. Wright is named in two indictments handed down in December 2015 accusing him of sexual misconduct with 15 and 12-year-old girls. Last month a Bowie County grand jury handed down a third indictment accusing Wright of similar conduct with a 13-year-old girl. Wright has entered pleas of not guilty to all charges.
Tidwell scheduled Wright’s case for jury selection April 24 at the Bowie County courthouse in New Boston, Texas. Wright came to the attention of Bowie County sheriff’s investigators in September 2015 when the parents of a 12-year-old girl reported their daughter told them she had been raped by Wright at his home on Buchanan Road in Bowie County, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The 12-year-old told a forensic interviewer at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Texarkana that she and a 15-year-old relative of Wright’s were spending the evening together at Wright’s home Sept. 20, 2015. The girl alleges Wright was drinking and forced the girls to play “quarters” and consume alcohol as well.
The 12-year-old told investigators Wright forced her to undress and sexually assaulted her in his bedroom while the 15-year-old was present. The girl described the sheets on Wright’s bed as having a camouflage pattern. The sheets were collected by investigators. According to the affidavit, the 15-year-old is intellectually disabled and reported to investigators and CAC staff that she has been sexually assaulted multiple times by Wright.
The grand jury handed down two separate indictments for Wright in December 2015. One indictment charges him with aggravated sexual assault of a child for his alleged misconduct with the 12-year-old. The second 2015 indictment charges Wright with second-degree sexual assault of the 15-year-old. The December 2016 indictment alleges continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 involving a relative who was 13 when interviewed by authorities.
The second-degree sexual assault is punishable by two to 20 years in prison. The aggravated sexual assault and continuous sexual abuse charges are punishable by up to life in prison.
