Tyler

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

A fourth-grade girl testified Tuesday about how she was repeatedly raped by a man who babysat her when she was 8.

Undre Demon Stewart, 24, of Tyler, was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child by a Smith County jury in 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.’s court after an hour and a half of deliberation. He faces five years to life in prison when the jury returns Wednesday for his punishment trial.

The defendant testified, denying that he ever had sex with the girl and that he ever babysat her during the timeframe of the allegations.

The victim, now 11, said she had known Stewart, or “Fat Daddy” her entire life and he would baby sit her and her siblings and cousins when their mothers went out at night. She said on three occasions, at three different locations, Stewart touched his privates to her privates.

“He had sex with me,” she said hesitantly.

Each time, Stewart told her that if she told anyone about what he did, he would “whoop” her, she said.

The girl said she was afraid to tell people and was afraid to testify.

When defense attorney Clifton Roberson questioned her, the victim wouldn’t look toward the defendant and gave a lengthy hesitation or didn’t answer at all to some questions about what Stewart did to her.

On June 18, 2007, the victim said she was caught by her grandparents doing something she shouldn’t have been doing with her 12-year-old male cousin. When her grandmother began talking to her about it, she told her about what Stewart had done to her, she said.

Susan Hinson, a sexual assault examining nurse, said on June 26, she examined the victim, who told her Stewart did it to her more than twice and told her he’d “whip” her if she told anyone. She said she found physical trauma on the girl that was consistent with her story.

Ms. Hinson said the girl was hesitant in her responses, was solemn, quiet and perhaps embarrassed to answer her questions, which she said was consistent with being a victim of sexual abuse. She said it is common for a child victim also to act out sexually and to make a delayed outcry.

“I believe it occurred the way she said it did,” Ms. Hinson said.

The victim’s grandmother testified that in June 2007, she was in another room when she heard her husband hollering after he had found the girl with her pants down on top of the fully-clothed 12-year-old boy. She said she asked the girl what she was doing and told her to be honest about whether anyone had been messing with her before the incident.

She said her granddaughter told her Stewart had raped her three times before and he told her not to tell anyone. Crying, she said her granddaughter seemed embarrassed, shy and scared when asked what Stewart did to her.

The girl’s mother, who said she knew Stewart since they were kids, said her daughter never acted differently when she left her with Stewart in 2004 and 2005 when he would baby sit her children nearly every weekend. She said before she learned of the sexual assaults, her daughter had changed; she stayed to herself a lot and didn’t spend time with the other children.

She said the girl seemed scared and embarrassed to tell her about what Stewart did to her.

Tyler Police Detective Paul Robeson testified that he interviewed the victim, her mother and her grandmother and each gave consistent accounts of what the victim said happened. He said at 10 years old, the victim described things to her that a child her age shouldn’t know and he believed her acting out sexually was learned behavior.

“Everything I heard and observed from her made me think that she (the victim) was telling the truth,” Robeson said, adding that he found no reason why she would make up the story.

Police were looking for Stewart since June, when an arrest warrant was issued, but he wasn’t captured until October in Arizona, he said.

The defendant testified that he graduated from John Tyler High School in 2003, then attended Texas College on a football scholarship for more than a year before he moved to Houston to attend massage therapy school. He lived again in Tyler before moving to Arizona with a friend.

Stewart said he didn’t tell his family he was moving out of state because he was a grown man, but he told his mother after he got there.

Stewart said he babysat the girl, as well as her siblings and cousins, from 1997 through 2001, but never babysat the girl again and definitely did not watch her in 2004 and 2005.

When asked if he ever had sex with the girl, he said, “No sir, I did not.”

He said he has known the girl her entire life and knew of no reason why she wouldn’t like him. “I don’t know why she would make it up,” Stewart said.

He said he went to the police department to talk to the detective twice before moving to Arizona and when his sister told him there was a warrant for his arrest, he talked to a Tyler officer, whom he didn’t remember the name of, nearly every day. He said he informed the officer that he would come back to Tyler as soon as he raised money for an airplane ticket. But, he said, he was arrested in Arizona before he raised the funds.

After Stewart testified, two sisters took the witness stand and said he babysat their children along with the victim frequently in 2004 and 2005.

Assistant Smith County District Attorney Zach Davis asked the jurors if they believed the girl or Stewart.

“She’s asking you to believe in her, to trust her and to protect her and to find him guilty,” he said.

Roberson said the prosecutors tried to get the jurors to speculate on several issues. He said the case was about whom the jury believed and whether the state proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Why shouldn’t you believe (Stewart)? He got on the witness stand and told you what happened … There’s no evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that he did this,” he said, adding that he believed the jury must return a not guilty verdict. Assistant District Attorney Joe Murphy said predators prey on those they know they can get away with victimizing.

He said Stewart not only lied about raping her, he lied about even being there.

“What you have here is somebody who hurt and preyed on a little girl,” he said.

STEWART
()