Dad gets life without parole for repeated abuse of daughter he impregnated (Dallas, Texas)

UNNAMED DAD has been sentenced to life without parole for sexually abusing his 2 daughters, one from age 7 to 13, when she became pregnant. The other daughter he started abusing around the age of 10 or 11. The girls now live in foster care.

But where is the mother? There is not ONE WORD of explanation here. Was this a single dad? Is that why the daughter told a school counselor about the abuse?

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/040710dnmetabusesentence.2250c8047.html

Man gets life without parole for repeated abuse of daughter he impregnated

04:56 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 7, 2010
By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News
jemily@dallasnews.com

A man who sexually abused his daughter from the time she was 7 until she became pregnant at 13 was sentenced today to life in prison without parole.

The man was also molesting a younger daughter from the time she was 10 or 11, according to testimony.

The man is not being identified to protect the identity of his daughters, now 14 and 12. The girls now live in foster care with the baby who was born in July to the older girl.

Life without parole is a sentence normally reserved for those convicted of capital murder in cases where the state does not seek the death penalty.

However, a 2007 state law against "continuous sexual abuse" of a child also provides for the life penalty -- and a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison without parole. Prosecutors must prove two instances of sexual abuse within 30 days.

This was one of the first cases to be tried in Dallas County under that law.

Authorities learned of the girls' abuse when the younger daughter told a counselor about her sister’s pregnancy by their father.

While the man was the girls' legal father, and the father of the baby, DNA tests showed that he was not the biological father of the older girl whom he impregnated. It was not made clear in court whether he knew that.

The man was found guilty by a jury,and sentenced by State District Judge Robert Burns.

The jury was released at the end of the guilt-or-innocence portion of the man's trial. But almost all of the jury members returned to Burns' court to watch the punishment phase.

The jury foreman, John Powell, said afterward that the jury would have imposed the same maximum punishment that the judge did -- especially after learning that the man had begun to molest his younger daughter.

“I wish we had never had to hear that,” Powell said, as tears welled up in his eyes and fellow jurors comforted him.

The man's victims, he said, "go far beyond the person he touched. It affects everyone who hears what happened. We really feel for those girls.”

Defense attorney Jeff Boncek argued that while his client was convicted of “unspeakable acts,” he deserved the minimum sentence, 25 years.

Even with most murder convictions, he said, "you’d still be parole-eligible." He added that a 25-year sentence "virtually assures" that the man "dies in prison.”

But prosecutors Shelley Fox and John Warren, arguing for the maximum sentence, said the lasting effects of the man's actions will be with the girls for the rest of their lives.

“These girls have had to endure so much in their 12 and 14 years – what most don’t endure in a lifetime,” Fox said. “I don’t believe he will change.”