Wichita County jury found 63-year-old William Mark Crump guilty
After Wednesday’s hour-long deliberation, a Wichita County jury found 63-year-old William Mark Crump guilty. He was under investigation for an August 2020 incident involving a minor.
This case allowed another survivor the chance to testify: Crump’s daughter. For the first time since the 1990s, the North Carolina woman faced her abuser. It had been over 25 years since Crump sexually abused her at age 10.
His destruction was aided by deliberate deception: the survivor recalled Crump’s assertion that “he was preparing [her] for womanhood.” According to him, “all fathers prepare their daughters for womanhood.”
The woman’s half-brother also testified during the trial, stating that he witnessed Crump sexually abusing his sister. While glancing through curtains covering a bedroom door, he observed the horrific violation of the young girl. As a result, he crafted a note alerting his stepmother about the incident. He taped it to the back door, so that she noticed it as soon as she arrived at the family home.
“I remember crying because it hurt like I was being ripped open,” she said during her testimony. After she fell asleep that night, her mother and sister woke her up, urging her to get in the car. The three women fled the house and rushed to a nearby gas station where an officer took the child’s statement.
After her initial statement, the survivor did not testify again before the trial.
Still, these convictions from March 1997 include attempted statutory rape, incest and indecent liberties with a minor. Prosecutors believe that Crump’s past was instrumental in the jury’s decision regarding the current case.
During the trial, Crump, a Wichita Falls local, pleaded not guilty. He was accused of raping a 5-year-old girl he babysat in his trailer on August 16, 2020.
Ultimately, he was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault.
Prosecutors seek “enhanced punishment” in Crump’s case, due to his past convictions of child sexual abuse involving his daughter. He is required to register as a lifetime sex offender, and faces up to life in prison.
Authors: Alexis Kabat and Andy Goldwasser
