San Angelo child sexually abused for 3 years, claims mother ignored cries for help
John Tufts
SAN ANGELO — The abuse began when she was 11. It began with groping during a wrestling match on a trampoline. She was assaulted again near a horse shed in Grape Creek, and another time between two parked vehicles, court records state.
The sexual abuse only got worse.
On April 9, 2019, a girl at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Tom Green County told investigators she was sexually assaulted up to 80 times, often two to three times per week, during a span of three years by a San Angelo man authorities later arrested, according to an affidavit.
Her cries for help were mostly ignored.
Investigators were told the abuse occurred from August 2014 until August 2017. The man was 20 when the assaults stopped.
The man threatened her not to tell anyone about what was going on, that if she did she would get in trouble, she told investigators.
When she was 12 years old, the girl told her parents she was being sexually abused, "but they just yelled at her," records state.
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Despite telling her mother at ages 12, 13 and 15 of her continual sexual assault, the girl's complaints weren't believed, and her multiple pleas for the man to stop the abuse were equally disregarded.
The girl told investigators she eventually began "to just allow (the man) to assault her, because she knew he would not stop," according to an affidavit.
After three years of repeated sexual abuse, someone at Hope House, which provides services to victims of child abuse and neglect in San Angelo, took the girl's complaints seriously.
The man denied the abuse allegations. When pressed by investigators, he allegedly admitted to having played "Truth or Dare" with the girl, which included her being naked in front of him; he was age 15 and she was 11 at the time, records state.
He also told investigators he would wrestle with the girl on a trampoline.
During her interview at Hope House, the girl said he once forced her to have sex with him inside her parent's bedroom when she was 11 years old.
On April 18, 2019, deputies with the Tom Green County Sheriff's Office arrested Jason Cade Murrell, 22, on suspicion of continual sexual abuse of a child younger than 14, a first-degree felony. If convicted, Murrell faces between 25 years in prison or a maximum sentence of 99 years, and up to $10,000 in fines.
As of noon, Monday April 22, Murrell remained in Tom Green County Jail in lieu of $75,000 bond.
Multimedia journalist John Tufts often covers crime and courts news. Have a story you'd like him to follow? Send an email to John.Tufts@GoSanAngelo.com. Submit news tips to News@GoSanAngelo.com. Consider supporting locally driven journalism with a subscription to GoSanAngelo.com.