OKC man convicted of child rape
Jurors Thursday chose four life sentences for an Oklahoma City man who raped an autistic 13-yearold girl and illicitly touched her younger sister in the shed where they lived.
A relative hanged herself in the Oklahoma County jail after admitting she witnessed the sexual assaults and didn’t tell police, according to prosecutors.
Johnny Aldric Samples III, 34, was convicted of four counts of sexual abuse of a child. At sentencing, District Judge Bill Graves will decide whether Samples serves the life sentences at the same time or consecutively.
During the trial, Samples told jurors he was innocent. He testified the girls had been “coached” by a relative.
“I was falsely accused of something I did not do,” Samples said. “I did not touch those kids. I don’t touch kids.”
The jurors, though, believed the girls, who also testified.
“Those little girls came in here and told you the truth,” Assistant District Attorney Merydith Easter told the jurors during closing arguments.
The prosecutor also said Samples “couldn’t keep his story straight.”
The crimes occurred between 2013 and 2015 in a small shed behind Samples’ grandmother’s house in Oklahoma City.
The older sister, now 18, testified he raped her on the floor of the shed. “He was on top of me,” she told the jury. The younger sister, who was 7 at the time of the offenses, said, “Every single time I kept telling him to stop” touching me.
The girl, now 10, began to cry after telling the jury that Samples threatened to kill a relative if she ever told.
Prosecutors alleged the relative was addicted to methamphetamine and Samples provided the drug to her.