Two words repeated to a 12-year-old girl left 62-year-old Troy Thomas free from consequence for more than two years after inappropriately touching her and her sister: “Trust me.” However, justice was served swiftly Friday afternoon.
Thomas pleaded guilty to five felony counts Friday, including charges of indecency with a child and attempted aggravated assault of a child.
He was sentenced to eight years behind bars by 451st state District Judge Kirsten Cohoon and will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Once Cohoon handed down the sentence, she called on those impacted by Thomas’s actions to face him and read prewritten letters.
“Mr. Thomas, at this juncture, I’m going to allow for the (victim impact statements) to be read,” Cohoon said. “It is of the utmost importance that you give all due respect and continue to pay attention to the person reading their statement to you.”
The parents spoke first, detailing the impact his actions had on the young girls.
“All of these years, we have been so careful about who our kids are – whose home they went to. I thought I was keeping them close and safe being so strict,” the victims’ father read. “But then, to find out someone so close – a grandpa figure – was a proverbial fox in the hen house was devastating.”
He continued, “Realizing it was eating away at them for over two years from inside out. You stole their innocence, their childhood, their way of being.”
Sobs could be heard from the gallery pews as the father described the depressive change he saw in his daughters after the incident, who he said at the time inexplicably switched from having a bubbly, colorful disposition to showing reclusive and self-harming behaviors.
He said the girls used to dress brightly and play together. Now, he said they shroud themselves in oversized hoodies.
“She used to talk to us about everything but now internalizes it,” he said of one of the victims. “I am so proud of her for finally standing up to your BS and telling someone... They both were beautiful beams of light that were bubbly and fund and enthusiastic. They used to run up and give me hugs as soon as I got home. They were always full of energy. I don’t get hugs anymore. That happy energy was ruined by you.”
The victims’ mother told Thomas he had eight years to consider the pain and torment he caused her two young girls, which she said was only a small fraction of the lifetime of healing her daughters would face.
The two girls had others read their letters to Thomas on their behalf, and the older sister’s letter recalled the growing level of sexual assault she experienced all while he continued to tell her to trust him.
“’Trust me. I’m here for you,’” her letter read. “’Trust me,’ is what he says. I didn’t think it then. Manipulation, that’s what this is. The start of a whole life of trauma.”
Her letter continued, “I still remember the words he said. ‘Trust me.’ Something I tried so hard to forget took over me, ate me alive and consumed me. If only I didn’t trust him.”
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