Trice sentenced to 119 years in prison after another man comes forward with more accusations.
Updated: Jan 29
An Erath County jury on Friday sentenced 78-year-old John David Trice to a combined 119 years in prison after he was convicted on seven charges related to sexual abuse of four minors.
He received 40 years for continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14; 10, 12, 15 and 12-year sentences for each of the four counts of indecency with a child; 20 years for sexual assault of a child and 10 years for sexual performance by a child.
Trice showed no emotion as Judge Jason Cashon read the sentence and was escorted out of the courtroom without looking at anyone in the audience.
Before the jury began deliberating Trice’s punishment on Friday, they heard from a 56-year-old Lingleville man who was one of Trice’s 7th grade students at Stephenville ISD in the 1980s.
The man told jurors that Trice asked him to do some work on his ranch, and on his first day on the job, said Trice gave him beer, showed him pornography and asked him to go skinny dipping in a stock tank.
He never went back.
He told the court that he contacted Texas Ranger B.J. Hill after reading about Trice’s arrest on Beneath the Surface News.
“This story goes way back,” Ranger Hill told BTS News while the jury deliberated punishment.
He also confirmed that a fifth victim had been identified and was scheduled to testify against Trice, but backed out before the trial started.
When Hill was asked if he thought there are other victims that have not been identified, he simply said, “yes.”
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