Texas teen who sexually abused child gets 10 years

A teen who sexually abused a local 8-year-old girl received a 10-year prison sentence Monday as part of a plea bargain.

J’Rome “Bone” Shepard, 18, appeared before 202nd District Judge John Tidwell with Chief Public Defender Rick Shumaker in a first-floor courtroom of the Bi-State Justice Building in downtown Texarkana. Shephard was 17 when he was first charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child in 2016. Tidwell gave Shepard credit for the days he has spent behind bars waiting for disposition of his case toward the 10-year term. Shepard was also ordered to pay $584 in court costs and must register as a sex offender upon release.

Shepard made the girl “pinky swear” that she wouldn’t tell of the abuse and warned she would be in trouble if she told, according to a probable cause affidavit used to create the following account. Shepard, a distant relative of the child’s, was

staying with the girl’s family at their home in Bowie County when the abuse occurred in May 2016.

The girl’s mother noticed a change in the girl’s behavior and demeanor, prompting her to question her daughter. The girl made an outcry of abuse by Shepard to her mother. After making a report with the Bowie County Sheriff’s Office, the victim was interviewed at the Children’s Advocacy Center in Texarkana.

At the Advocacy Center, the girl revealed details of the abuse and said Shepard reassured her by telling her that he had engaged in sexual conduct with her 13-year-old cousin.

Shepard, a resident of Karnack, Texas, remains in the Bowie County jail awaiting transport to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.