BEDIAS MAN SENTENCED TO LIFE IN PRISON

  

After being presented with evidence of physical and sexual abuse of a mother and her children, it only took a Grimes County jury only 16 minutes of deliberation to sentence a Bedias man to life in prison.

36-year-old Leslie Eugene Young Jr. was found guilty of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon.  The charge was enhanced due to a previous Burglary of a Habitation conviction in Harris County.

He was also fined $10,000.

The case began on July 6, 2022 when the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office received a report of sexual assault of a child.

Sheriff’s Investigator Swank Backhus was assigned to the case, and conducted a forensic interview with the victim.  The victim reported being sexually assaulted repeatedly by Young while living with him in Bedias.

Backhus requested assistance from D.A. Investigator John Wren, who has extensive experience in dealing with child sexual abuse cases.

Investigators met with the victim’s mother on July 15, 2022.  The mother made a call to Young that was monitored by the investigators in which he admitted to various assaults of the mother and her children, who ranged in age from toddler to teenager. 

He also admitted during that same phone call to threatening them with firearms if they ever tried to report him.

Young was arrested and charged with two counts of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child, Injury to a Child, Assault Family Violence-Impeding Breath, and Continuous Violence Against the Family.

Following Young’s arrest, a search warrant was served on his Bedias residence and three firearms were recovered.  The firearms matched the descriptions of the firearms that were used during the commission of the assaults.  They also tracked down a 9mm handgun that Young had sold.

Prosecutors filed a motion to present all the charges at the same time, but the Court ruled that they would have to be presented individually.

The mother of the victim testified that the reasons that she didn’t leave Young sooner was afraid he carry out his threats against her and the children. She also claimed that she didn’t have anywhere to go, and that she didn’t think anyone would believe her.

After confiding in female friends at work, they helped the mother and her children escape from Young for good.

Following the verdict, Investigator Wren commented that in 25 years of law enforcement, this was most extreme case of child physical abuse that he’d ever seen.