Man gets 100 years for child sex abuse
NEW BOSTON, Texas —A man found guilty of five felony child sex abuse crimes Thursday by a Bowie County jury was sentenced to 100 years in prison at the end of his trial.
Russell Layne Little, 42, was convicted Thursday of two counts of sexual assault of a child and three counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact and sentenced to maximum 20-year terms on each count. A motion to cumulate the sentences filed by the state was granted by 102nd District Judge Jeff Addison. That means the terms will run consecutively for a 100-year sentence.
The jury also assessed a maximum $10,000 fine on each count for a total $50,000.
Little touched a 15-year-old friend of his daughter’s in 2017. The girl made an outcry of sexual abuse to an adult member of her church the same year. The victim reported that she was sexually abused by Little when she would spend the night with Little’s daughter at Little’s residence in Nash, Texas, on multiple occasions.
Two other girls testified during the trial that Little touched them inappropriately as well. One of the alleged victims was a 12-year-old spending the night with Little’s daughter several years ago. Another alleged victim was 16 when Little touched her inappropriately.
The criminal case led to the demise of Little’s marriage. Little, who had been free on a $50,000 bond, was taken back into custody Oct. 7.
A motion to revoke Little’s bond alleges that he violated his bond conditions by committing the offenses of harassment, retaliation, terroristic threat and assault by threat. Little allegedly made threatening statements toward a witness scheduled to
testify at his trial for the state.
“The defendant has a gun and stated that he was homicidal toward this witness,” the motion states.
Little was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Randle Smolarz and Craig Foster and First Assistant District Attorney Kelley Crisp. Little was represented by Texarkana lawyer Josh Potter.
All three prosecutors emphasized Little’s use of a religious setting to find victims.
“Russell Little used his involvement in the church to gain the trust of
the victims,” Smolarz said. “He was methodical and slowly escalated his criminal fantasies over a period of time.”
Foster said he is grateful for the jury’s verdict.
“Russell Little is a man who used the church and his own daughter to gain access to young girls. He molested three girls that we know about and it’s truly frightening to think how far he would have gone had he not been caught. We are thankful to the 12 citizens on that jury who gave these victims justice and an opportunity
to try and move on with their lives,” Foster said.
Crisp too mentioned Little’s exploitation of those who trusted him.
“Russell Little used his influence as a leader in his church, a father figure and a mentor to these three children in order to gain access so that he could sexually abuse them. In heartbreaking detail, these girls testified to the repeated sexual abuse and described to the jury how Russell Little essentially destroyed their childhoods,” Crisp said. “He will never again in his lifetime be a free man.”