Mark Jones: Texas man, 49, arrested for child sexual assault after parents find 'letter to God' detailing the abuse
MCKINNEY, TEXAS: A 49-year-old man, Mark Elliott Jones, has been convicted on two counts of continuous child sexual assault after one of two victims’ parents found a letter their child wrote to God disclosing the abuse in 2019. Jones has been sentenced to 35 years in prison without the possibility of parole for assaulting two children, who were 10 and 14 years old back then.
According to a press release by Collin County District Attorneys office, Jones sexually abused the two children for several years. It came to an end when "one of the children’s parents found a letter their child had written to God in which she disclosed the abuse. The child’s parent reported the information to law enforcement, whose investigation led to the discovery of the second abused child," read the statement. McKinney Police Department Detective Zachary Craven investigated the case and during the investigation, it was also discovered that a second child was being abused by the same man. The children were then forensically interviewed at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Collin County, where both of them narrated the details about the ongoing abuse.
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The first allegation against Jones was filed with the McKinney Police Department on June 6, 2019. He was arrested on the same date. After an investigation, the second allegation was filed on June 18, 2019. According to Collin County court records, a criminal complaint was first filed against Jones on June 24, 2019. Following this, an examining trial was then held and an indictment on both charges was issued on July 25, 2019, as per Law&Crime. Jones was charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 and indecent sexual contact with a child.
The report by Law&Crime suggests that the minimum sentence for continuous sexual abuse of a child in Texas is 25 years. However, Judge Andrea Thompson sentenced the culprit to 35 years in prison. The judge said, as quoted by People, "By law, a sentence for Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child is without eligibility for parole."
Commenting on the sentence, District Attorney Greg Willis said “It is a sad day in the community when we learn that a sexual predator has been abusing even one innocent child for years. But to learn that this predator sexually traumatized not one but two innocent children is simply unbearable."