'I yelled': Victim in Crump's trial testifies about alleged sexual abuse
Editor’s Note: If you know or suspect that anyone under 18 is being sexually or physically abused, call the Texas child abuse hotline at 1-800-252-5400. To learn more about how to identify signs of child abuse or neglect, click here
A little girl walked into court clutching two stuffed toys and a prosecutor's hand. Then she testified William Mark Crump raped her when she was 5.
The 9-year-old girl and her sister, who also gave testimony, both looked tiny on the witness stand in 89th District Court Tuesday afternoon.
Each broke down into tears while telling solemn jurors details about allegations Crump sexually assaulted one of them while they were spending the night in his trailer behind a Wichita Falls home.
“I see you brought some friends with you there,” 89th District Judge Charles Barnard said to the victim holding the stuffed toys.
'I yelled': Victim testifies in Crump's trial
Barnard gently swore her in. She confirmed to the judge she knows the difference between what is true and what is not. Wichita County Assistant District Attorney Chelsea Carlton, who had escorted the child into the courtroom holding her hand, began questioning her.
“You know that we're here to talk about some tough stuff, right?" Carlton said.
Crump, 63, is on trial for a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14 in connection with an Aug. 16, 2020, incident at his Wichita Falls home. He has pleaded not guilty. Crump faces up to life in prison.
In case of a conviction, prosecutors are seeking an enhanced punishment because of his 1990s cases in North Carolina for child sexual abuse. Crump was convicted there and is already required to register as a sex offender for life.
Tuesday afternoon, Carlton eased the victim into testimony before questioning her about the alleged sexual assault.
The child testified she, her sister and older brother stayed with Crump many times while her dad was working. They spent the night in Crump's trailer while her father stayed at a hotel with his girlfriend on the night of the assault.
The little girl's mother testified Tuesday morning that she knew about Crump's criminal history while she was married to the girls' father. She also testified that after they split up, she knew Crump, a relative of her husband, was around her children. But she didn't know he was alone with them.
The victim testified that Crump told her and her sister to undress. She was alone in bed with him when he started to explain girls and boys' anatomy and began sexually assaulting her.
“I don’t know if he didn’t hear me, but I told him to stop, and he didn’t. I yelled, and he stopped,” the girl said.
She testified that she started to cry, got dressed and went to find her sister and brother. She told her sister what happened, and her sister got angry. She calmed her sister down with her stuffed animal and told her Crump said not to tell anyone.
Crump's attorney questions victim
When Wichita County Senior Assistant Public Defender Marty Cannedy cross-examined her, the child corrected herself at one point. She meant to say her father was staying at an apartment with his girlfriend — not a hotel.
More: Sexual abuse from decades ago takes center stage in Crump's trial
After the allegations came to light in 2022, her mother drove her from Oklahoma where they used to live to Wichita Falls, the girl told jurors. Her mother talked with her about the interview coming up at Patsy's House.
“Be brave and tell the truth," her mother told her.
"Sometimes I say stuff that I mean, but in a different way that’s like confusing to people," the child testified.
The strain of testifying against Crump
She broke down into loud sobs, and the judge excused her from the witness stand. Carlton led the weeping child out of court by the hand. Several of the girl's supporters on the front row of the gallery also got up and walked out. Barnard sent jurors on a break.
After the child returned to the witness stand, Cannedy pointed out that what she said Tuesday differed at times from what she said at Patsy's House Children's Advocacy Center during an interview videotaped last year. The child agreed.
He asked her if she ever remembers things differently as time goes by than what they actually were.
“Yeah, but sometimes I remember a lot, and then I just forget it," the little girl testified.
“Wait until you get older,” Cannedy said in a rare light moment Tuesday.
He continued to seek to poke holes in her testimony and credibility during cross-examination.
Afterward, Carlton asked the child, who now lives in a North Texas county, how old she was when the assault happened.
The little girl told the jury she was 5, in kindergarten in Oklahoma and what her teacher's name was.
Another child takes the stand in Crump's trial
After she left the courtroom, her sister walked in holding hands with Carlton.
Her sister, also under 10, testified she slept on a living room couch the night of the assault, and her brother slept on a couch that turns into a bed. She told the jury the victim came out of Crump's bedroom crying.
“I said, 'Calm down,' because she was crying, and I was worried. I was worried that she wasn’t going to calm down, and she was scared,” the sister testified.
The sister began to cry on the witness stand, and Carlton said, “Do you want me to come stand next to you?”
Barnard allowed her to approach the child. The victim assistance coordinator also came up to the girl to give her a comfort object and quickly sat back down. After her short testimony, the sister walked out of the courtroom holding a small pink toy and gripping Carlton's hand.
Testimony is expected to resume Wednesday morning.
Jury selection took place Monday. Jurors heard opening arguments Tuesday morning, and the victim's father was the first witness.
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Trish Choate, enterprise watchdog reporter for the Times Record News, covers education, courts, breaking news and more. Contact Trish with news tips at tchoate@gannett.com. Read her recent work here. Her X handle is @Trishapedia.
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: Victim testifies she was very young when Crump allegedly assaulted her
