Killingsworth sentenced to 42 years in prison for sexually abusing girls

A Wichita Falls pastor convicted of sexually abusing three underaged girls who attended his church was sentenced Wednesday to 42 years in prison.

Ronnie Allen Killingsworth, who turned 79 Tuesday, will be eligible for parole at age 100 when he has served 21 years of his sentence.

Killingsworth, pastor of Rephidim Church in Wichita Falls, was booked Wednesday into the Wichita County Jail to begin serving his sentences, according to online jail records.

He was convicted on six counts of indecency with a child through contact in incidents that happened between 2000 and 2011. On four of those charges, he faced a minimum of two years in prison each. On the remaining two charges he was eligible for probation.

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Defense attorney Chuck Smith asked the jury of six men and six women to give him the minimum sentence of two years on four charges and allow him probation on the other two.

Smith asked the jurors to consider Killingsworth's age and health. He has had two heart surgeries and has a pacemaker.

But prosecutor Davye Jo Estes said a verdict of guilty is only as good as the punishment.

More: In packed courtroom: Victims provide details of indecency allegations against pastor

"The community should realize we will not tolerate child abusers," she said.

The panel deliberated one hour before recommending a sentence of 15 years each on four of the counts and 12 years each on the remaining two counts.

Prosecutor Bill Vasser asked 78th District Court Judge Meredith Kennedy to make four of the 15 year sentences concurrent — meaning they would be served at the same time — and to make a 15-year-sentence and a 12-year sentence consecutive, meaning they would be stacked one after the other.

Kennedy agreed, so the total comes to 42 years.

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Testimony in the trial lasted a week with each of the three victims, now adults, describing how Killingsworth touched them inappropriately behind the closed doors of his church office.

Killingsworth testified in his own defense that the incidents never happed. Relatives and members of the congregation of Rephidim Church also testified on KIllingsworth's behalf, saying they never knew him to be alone in his office with children.

Much of the testimony in the trial involved practices and doctrines of the church Killingsworth founded in 1971. Those practices included a doctrine of "separation" in which members who left the congregation were to be shunned and the setting of dates for rapture, the ascending of the faithful to heaven.

Vasser and Estes are with the Tarrant County District Attorney's Office and were assigned to the case to avoid a possible conflict of interest because Killingsworth's son, Allen, is on the Wichita Falls Police Department.

So many observers crowded into the gallery to watch the trial that Kennedy moved it to the larger 30th District Courtroom.

This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Killingsworth sentenced to 42 years in prison for molesting girls