Tyler

EDITOR’S NOTE: The names of the victims in this article are not named in keeping with the Tyler Morning Telegraph’s policy to protect the identity of victims of sexual abuse and to encourage the reporting of such crimes.

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

Three teenage girls testified Wednesday about being sexually assaulted — either by force or with their consent while they were underage — by Andevron Parchman, who is on trial for raping one of the victims.

Parchman, 21, of Tyler, pleaded guilty to sexual assault of a child for an incident on Jan. 18, 2006, with a 14-year-old girl. A Smith County jury in 7th District Judge Kerry Russell’s court began hearing evidence Tuesday in his punishment trial. He faces two to 20 years in prison for the second-degree felony.

Parchman was convicted of sexual assault of a child by a jury in November 2007 for raping a 15-year-old girl Nov. 21, 2006, and was sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison by Russell.

The defendant also has a pending aggravated sexual assault of a child charge for allegedly sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl on June 1, 2005. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of that charge.

The three victims testified about their relationships with Parchman. The defendant’s mother testified she had met all three girls and they told her they were 17 years old.

The victim, for whom Parchman is now on trial, a 17-year-old girl, testified she had been seeing Parchman for about a month before the Jan. 18, 2006, incident, which happened when she was 14.

Parchman and Vonkendrick White, 19, picked her up and took her to Parchman’s house. She said she was having consensual sex with Parchman when White came into the bedroom and she told Parchman to stop but he didn’t. She said White came up to them and told Parchman, “let me get some.” Parchman moved over and White raped her while Parchman held her hands behind her head, she said.

She said she was crying and screaming for him to stop and he eventually did. The men then took her and dropped her off at a high school basketball game, where they had picked her up.

That night, she said, she told two of her cousins what happened, and later told her mother. Her mother asked her where Parchman lived and, after driving by his house, she called police and took her to the hospital to get examined.

She said she talked to police and identified Parchman and White through photo lineups.

White was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child for the incident, but that charge was dismissed on July 1, according to Smith County records.

The victim said that, about a year after the incident, she saw Parchman and she became scared after he stared at her.

“I think about it a lot but I try not to because it still upsets me,” she said.

When questioned by the defense attorney, the girl said she was intimate with White before she began seeing Parchman.

She said she and Parchman had sex about 10 times in the month she knew him, beginning in December 2005.

The victim for whom Parchman has already been convicted of sexually assaulting testified that she was 15 when she was dating Parchman’s roommate in November 2006. She said her boyfriend was at work and she was asleep in his bedroom when she awakened to someone having sex with her. She said Parchman held her hands down while he raped her, but she eventually was able to push him off of her.

When her boyfriend got home, she told him what happened and he told her mother, who then called police and took her to a hospital.

The victim, now 17, said she still thinks about it every day.

Kristy Link, a forensic scientist with the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab in Garland, testified that Parchman’s DNA was found on the 14- and 15-year-old victims.

A 16-year-old girl testified she met Parchman when she was 13 and he was 18.

She said she was at his house the first time they had sex and she didn’t want to do it, but just laid there and Parchman told her not to tell anyone.

She said whenever she saw Parchman they would have sex, which happened at least 20 times. She said she didn’t want to do it, but he always did and she let it happen.

She said there were times she and her mother talked to police about it and she went to the hospital once. But, she said, her mother thought it was her fault.

The girl said she and Parchman wrote each other letters and she liked hearing him write that he loved her.

Smith County Sheriff Sgt. Tony Dana testified about his investigations of the cases.

He said he believed the 13-year-old girl felt like if she didn’t have sex with Parchman, she wouldn’t get to see him anymore. He said he believed the girl’s mother was against the girl instead of supporting her.

Dana read from some of the letters Parchman wrote the girl, referring to their sexual relationship. In one letter, he wrote her a poem titled “I Can’t Wait to Work That Body Over.”

The defendant’s mother, Felicia Parchman, testified her son lived with her in Tyler. She talked of how she met all three girls at different times when they came to her house.

She said the 14-year-old girl showed her an identification card showing she was Andevron Parchman’s age and she wondered why the girl felt she had to prove her age to her.

She said she saw the girl three or four times after Jan. 18, 2006, when she came to the house to visit her son.

Ms. Parchman said the 13-year-old girl told her she was 17 years old.

And the 15-year-old girl, whom Ms. Parchman said her son did not get along with, told her she was 17 years old.

She said she believed it was important that the girls lied about their ages, but she never contacted police after her son was arrested to tell them that. She said she didn’t understand when he was arrested why it was a crime for her son to have a relationship with girls his age.

Ms. Parchman said her son told her it was all lies. She said he did not know they were underage when he had relationships with them.

Parchman’s prior convictions include misdemeanor theft and burglary of a coin-operated machine. He was placed on probation for both offenses, but his probation was revoked.

Assistant Smith County district attorneys Richard Vance and Greg Cole are prosecuting the case while Nancy Rumar is representing Parchman. The trial will resume today.

Andevron Parchman
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