Sex offender pleads guilty to indecency with a child
TEXARKANA, Texas — A 24-year-old required to register as a sex offender because of a crime he committed as a juvenile pleaded guilty Tuesday to indecency with a child and failing to register as a sex offender.
Devonta Vashun Smith appeared Tuesday morning before 102nd District Judge Jeff
Addison with Assistant Public Defender Deborah Moore to enter pleas of guilty to indecency with a child by exposure and violating sex offender registration reporting requirements.
Smith was sentenced to eight years in prison on each count with the terms to run concurrently. He received credit for approximately one year of time he has spent in the Bowie County jail.
Smith was arrested in July 2019 after he was found at the Texarkana Public Library in the company of a 14-year-old girl who had been reported as a runaway, according to a probable cause affidavit. Smith provided a Texarkana, Texas, address different from the one on file with the sex offender registry and was asked to come to the Bi-State Justice Building to update his registration.
Smith denied any inappropriate contact with the girl when first questioned, but he admitted to misconduct later in an interview with investigators.
“With every new explanation, he would hang his head, have a solemn appearance, and state, ‘I’m going to tell you the truth,’” the affidavit states.
Smith told investigators he and the girl had stayed together at an abandoned house and that while there, inappropriate contact between them occurred.
According to the Texas Department of Public Safety sex offender database, Smith is required to register as a sex offender because of a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child involving a 15-year-old boy. The DPS site shows that Smith was adjudicated in 2011, when he would have been approximately 16, and that he spent more than two years under the supervision of juvenile authorities.