A Collingsworth County jury last Wednesday, March 6, found 62-year-old Ernest Glenn Benton guilty of the first degree felony offense of aggravated sexual assault of a child, under the age of fourteen, and the second degree felony offense of indecency with a child under seventeen.
At the conclusion of the two-day jury trial, the jury sentenced Benton to life imprisonment on both cases in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
District Attorney Luke Inman prosecuted the case for the State of Texas with the Honorable Judge Richard Dambold presiding, by assignment.
Benton, a 62-year-old Wellington resident, was arrested by the Collingsworth County Sheriff’s Department on April 26, 2012.
Benton was later indicted by a Collingsworth County Grand Jury on June 27, 2012 for the first degree offense and second degree felony offense.
Benton was one of two defendants convicted of aggravated sexual assault against this victim in Collingsworth County for the offense that occurred on the same date.
Bryan Keith Price of Hedley, the victim’s biological father, was found guilty of a similar first degree felony offense of aggravated sexual assault in Collingsworth County and convicted to life imprisonment on January 17, 2013.
During the State’s case in chief against Benton, the State called seven witnesses.
Testimony was provided by the victim to the present offense, Childress Independent School District Counselor Sherry Davis, Childress County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Danny Gillem, Donley County Sheriff Charles “Butch” Blackburn, Collingsworth County Deputy Kent Riley, Ian Diaz with the Bridge Children’s Advocacy Center, and Becky O’Neal, the coordinator for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners at Northwest Texas Hospital.
“We were fortunate to have a victim who was willing to face these two men in court and both received the maximum punishment after they were convicted,” said Inman. “We could not have received the punishment that we were asking for without her support and cooperation over the past year.”
The facts presented in both cases established that the victim’s father, Price, brought her to Wellington on or about April 14, 2012, when he allowed Benton to sexually assault her in Benton’s own home, according to Inman.
On Wednesday morning, the jury convicted the defendant of the first degree felony offense of aggravated sexual assault of a child and the second degree felony offense of indecency with a child.
The second degree felony, as well as the first degree offense, were both enhanced to a 25-year minimum punishment range due to Benton’s previous felony convictions.
Benton had been previously convicted of four felony offenses, including on conviction for an attempt to commit a sexual assault. The jury sentenced Benton to life imprisonment on both charges.
“The convictions of both defendants were the direct result of the joint investigations conducted by the Childress, Donley, and Collingsworth sheriffs’ offices after the victim made the outcry of the sexual abuse,” Inman said.
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