Jurors who will determine the fate of a 65-year-old man accused of raping a small child over three-years watched portions of a forensic interview with the child on the first day of his trial in Ector County District Court Monday.
Gary Landreth is charged with four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, one count each of sex abuse of child continuous, human trafficking and injury to a child.
At the start of Monday’s trial, Assistant District Attorney Kortney Williams told jurors Landreth and the child’s mother were arrested after the little girl told a forensic interviewer she was sexually abused by Landreth and a physical exam confirmed she’d been abused. Williams also told them the evidence will show Landreth provided money to the child’s mother so he could have access to the child.
Assistant District Attorney Rikki Earnest read the indictment to jurors indicating the abuse took place from August 2016 through January 2019.
Sylvia Athayde, a former forensic interviewer with Harmony House Child Advocacy Center, was the state’s first witness. She told jurors forensic interviewers are trained to ask potential victims open-ended non-suggestive questions and to try to get children to describe in their own words what they experienced.
When she met the victim in January 2019, the girl was 5-years-old, but clearly knew the difference between the truth and a lie, Athayde said.
Over the course of their interview, the girl told her verbally and using pictures exactly how “Gary” touched her and had her touch him in her mother’s bedroom, Athayde said. She also used her hands and mouth.
The girl used the words “bad” and “hurt” to describe how the acts felt, the forensic interviewer told jurors.
Throughout her time at the center, Athayde said the girl engaged in highly sexual behaviors, sometimes without being asked questions about Landreth’s actions and even when she was out of the interview room.
A normal 5-year-old would not engage is such behaviors, Athayde said prior to Williams showing the jurors clips of the behavior.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Michael McLeaish, who waived his opening statement, Athayde testified she doesn’t know what the living conditions were at the girl’s home. The girl did tell her, however, that the bathroom and sink weren’t working and she’d had lice.
Judge Denn Whalen of the 70th District Court is presiding over the trial.
Last week, the girl’s mother, Shirley Harmon, 40, pleaded guilty to abandonment/endangerment and was sentenced to the maximum term allowed under her plea agreement, 20 years in prison. She’s still facing trial on one count each of continuous sexual assault and human trafficking.
Harmon is on the state’s list of potential witnesses.
