Posted 3:18 am Saturday, March 06, 2010
‘Serial Molester' Garners Four Life Sentences
By DAYNA WORCHEL
Staff Writer
Judge Kerry Russell of the Smith County 7th District Court, on Friday, gave an Arp man four life sentences and one 20-year confinement to prison after he submitted an open plea of guilty to four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child.
Staff Writer
Judge Kerry Russell of the Smith County 7th District Court, on Friday, gave an Arp man four life sentences and one 20-year confinement to prison after he submitted an open plea of guilty to four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child.
Bobby Lee Blanton, 64, was immediately remanded to the custody of deputies after the sentencing.
Testimony in the hearing included that of two women, now ages 47 and 48, who were 9-year-olds at the time Blanton molested them. During some tearful and impassioned testimony from the mother of one of Blanton's victims, a member of the audience in the courtroom began audibly sobbing and had to be escorted outside by a deputy.
One of the young victims, now 14, testified that when she was age 6, Blanton touched her inappropriately and made her take showers with him. He threw shoes at the victim and threatened to kill her if she told anyone about the abuse. She said she didn't tell anyone about what Blanton was doing because she was afraid.
The girl said she now has major problems trusting anyone and has had problems at school, focusing and concentrating on school work.
Defense attorney Kurt Noell asked the girl if she had ever received a letter of apology from Blanton he had mailed to her home. She responded that she did not know of any letter, and said, "Sorry doesn't take away my trust issues."
The mother of one of the young victims said she had no idea what Blanton was capable of doing.
"I was shocked -- I always thought he was a morally upstanding man," she said in an angry voice.
The woman said Blanton had sent many letters to her home, some apologizing for the abuse, and another asking for the charges against him to be dropped.
One victim, now aged 48, who now lives in Dallas, said she was molested by Blanton on a family camping trip when she 9.
"I didn't speak out when I was a child, and I am here now to validate the testimony of the other victims," she said.
The adult victim said Blanton touched her inappropriately while she was lying next to him in the same tent. The 48-year-old said she asked her young friend, who was lying next to her to trade places with her. When Blanton began touching the young friend after they traded places, the girl told him to stop and he did.
"I didn't realize that all I had to say was, 'Stop,' and he would have stopped," the woman said.
"I don't think this city could hold all of the pain he's caused," said Smith County Assistant District Attorney Richard Vance. He said the abuse and pain would linger for the rest of the victims' lives.
Blanton, who wore a red Smith County jumpsuit with chains during the hearing, sat with his head bowed during most of the testimony.
Vance said that Blanton had stated he thought the victims were out to get him and that he was being subjected to a witch hunt.
"What you have here is a serial molester," said Vance, who argued for the life sentence. "This is the epitome of a life case," he said.
Noell said he had awakened at 4:30 a.m. to figure out what he would say in the courtroom about Blanton.
"I can't explain or make excuses -- these crimes are all bad, and most of us can't understand the behavior."
Noell went on to say that Blanton had no prior criminal record and cited his military service in the 1960s with an atomic weapons unit.
Judge Russell called the day tragically sad and said he had no doubt that a jury would have given Blanton the maximum sentence regardless of his age.
