Tyler

EDITORS NOTE: The name of the victim in this article is not given to protect her identity and encourage the reporting of such crimes.

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

Jeffery Allen was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting a 16-year-old disabled girl who became pregnant.

A Smith County jury convicted Allen, 24, Overton, Tuesday of aggravated sexual assault of a child. The jury sentenced him Thursday after less than two hours of deliberation. He faced five years to life in prison

The offense was aggravated sexual assault of a child because the jury found that the victim was disabled when she was sexually assaulted in December.

Assistant District Attorney Zach Davis told the jury that the victim, who is now 17, became pregnant in December 2007, when she was 16 years old.

The victim's mother testified that she and her children lived with Allen and the defendant's wife and children from June 2007, until the sexual assault allegations came to light in January.

The victim's mother said she often left Allen in charge of her daughter, who she said could not take care of herself. The mother testified that she found out about the pregnancy when her daughter complained of nausea and stomach cramps at the end of December and she took her daughter to the University of Texas Health Science Center.

During closing arguments, Davis told the jurors Allen confessed to having sex with the girl and gave a detailed account of what happened between them. He said a child can't legally consent to sex and the only issue before the jury was whether the girl was disabled at the time of the offense.

Davis said "she has a failure to thrive growth impairment."

"She can't take care of herself," he said.

Defense attorney Clifton Roberson said there was no denying that Allen had sex with the girl because he confessed. He said the state failed to prove she was disabled at the time of the incident.

"We're talking about a kid who can function like any other kid ... who can provide for herself," Roberson said. He said there was no proof the victim was disabled and asked the jury to find his client guilty of the lesser-included offense of sexual assault of a child.

Allen was convicted of two counts of forgery, both state jail felonies, in 2006.