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Sugar Cookie

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A 36-year-old woman from Ector County was arrested after authorities say she allowed a 62-year-old man to sexually assault her 5-year-old daughter for $400.

Shirley Harmon was charged on Sunday with aggravated assault on a child, a first-degree felony. Harmon was arrested on March 4th with endangering a child, a second-degree felony, after the Ector County Sheriff's Office said she failed to report that her daughter was being sexually abused by 62-year-old Gary Landreth.

Landreth was arrested on January 14th but was released in ten days later after he posted bail. The assaults happened between 2017 and 2019, with the final assault that took place on January 7, according to an affidavit.

Harmon admitted in the interview that she knew that her daughter was being sexually assaulted by Landreth and continued to allow it. She received $400 to give Landreth access to the girl.
Shirley Harmon.jpg
 
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What in the actual fuuuuck??
How do people like this get together, where do they find each other, what in bloody hell is wrong with her....I don't understand!? My brain is struggling to piece this together. She let some nasty old fucker rape her baby girl? This is beyond sickening. It's bad enough when it happens and the parents are not aware but this - she KNEW, she was in on it! Is she a perv too? Was she enjoying it or did she take the $$ and go shopping at Dollar Tree? I hope her daughter is taken away and helped in every possible way!
 
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That woman has the saddest mouth I have ever seen. I hope prison makes it even sadder and she getss her ass beat every day. MANY of those women in there were raped or in relationships with pimps and will take out that aggression on this bitch. Hopefully often.
Hopefully that poor child is able to block much of that out, and gets some good therapy.
 
How do people like this get together, where do they find each other
. I also wonder how and why. Maybe Ms. Harmon isnt all there. She looks deficient. Maybe she is retarded. It could help explain how she could become an easy target to a perv shopping for a toddler. It's hard to imagine how or why people come together for pedo purposes. Either mom is into it, wanted drugs or booze, or was suckered because she isn't competent in some areas. or all those things! I make no allowances, just trying to understand the mindset.
I hope her parental rights are terminated and the poor girl is with a safe family.
 
That woman has the saddest mouth I have ever seen. I hope prison makes it even sadder and she getss her ass beat every day. MANY of those women in there were raped or in relationships with pimps and will take out that aggression on this bitch. Hopefully often.
Hopefully that poor child is able to block much of that out, and gets some good therapy.
My molestation, by my father, started at age 6- I'm almost 53 now and still recall the very first incident! Sadly, it never goes away and controls you every day for the rest of your life!
 
My molestation, by my father, started at age 6- I'm almost 53 now and still recall the very first incident! Sadly, it never goes away and controls you every day for the rest of your life!

My heart literally bleeds for you and others still stuck with the memories of what others did to them. I did a couple years of high risk social work, I have seen and watched these type of children try to survive with the shitty things others have done, I truly hope you (and they) are able to find peace and justice and know that none of this twisted shit was ever your fault.
 
My molestation, by my father, started at age 6- I'm almost 53 now and still recall the very first incident! Sadly, it never goes away and controls you every day for the rest of your life!
I'm so sorry. My dad started with me at 15. It just brought on one fiasco after another. I'm much older now and it doesn't go away. Take care. Eleven
 
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I am so happy the mother no longer has rights to this child and she has been adopted.

It does not state it but I hope her rights to the other children were terminated as well.

Mom knew exactly what was going on to her child and allowed it.

A little Odessa girl who told investigators in 2019 that she'd been repeatedly raped by a family friend reported being sexually assaulted by the same man two years earlier, but authorities didn't have enough evidence to make an arrest.

Tuesday was the second day in the trial of Gary Landreth, an Odessa man who is facing 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.

Landreth was arrested in January 2019 after a 5-year-old girl told a forensic interviewer she was sexually abused by Landreth, a family friend, and a physical exam confirmed she'd been abused.

On Tuesday, Lt. Thomas Paz of the Ector County Sheriff's Office told jurors that in 2017 the same little girl was brought to the sheriff's office after telling someone Landreth had touched her inappropriately. The child was interviewed by a forensic interviewer at that time, as well, but the investigation stalled, Paz said.

The then-3-year-old girl did not say anything that justified a physical exam and interviewers weren't convinced she knew the difference between the truth and a lie, Paz said. In addition, they believed she may have been coached as to what to say during the interview, he said.

Jurors were shown a video of that forensic interview. Early on in the interview and without prompting, the girl said, "Gary put his finger down there and he touched me. He needs to go to jail."

The interviewer swiftly moved away from the topic in order to confirm the girl knew the difference between the truth and a lie.

The girl was able to properly identify balls, dogs, cats and other items in pictures that were shown to her, but when the interviewer would point to the picture and purposely misidentify the item, the girl was just as likely to say "right" as "wrong."

Paz told Assistant District Attorney Kortney Williams that when he spoke to Shirley Harmon, the child's mother, she told him Landreth hadn't been around any of her children for months and she would no longer give him access to the children.

In hindsight, Paz said he should have investigated further and interviewed Harmon more in-depth.

Harmon was also arrested and indicted in 2019 after she told authorities she'd accepted $400 from Landgreth for access to her children. She was charged with abandonment/endangerment, continuous sexual assault of a child and human trafficking.

The 40-year-old pleaded guilty to the abandonment/endangerment charge and agreed to testify against Landreth in exchange for having the other two charges dismissed.

On Tuesday, Harmon told jurors she was a single mother of a five-month-old boy when she moved to Odessa in December 2009 to get to know her biological mother, who had lost custody of her and her siblings in the late 1980s. She met Landreth at church through her mother and he offered to watch her son while she worked.

Eventually, she moved in with Landreth and when she became pregnant by another man with her daughter in August 2013, Landreth agreed to continue to watch both children, Harmon said.

Harmon testified she never paid Landreth for rent and what money she earned while working 40-plus hours a week at Taco Bell went for food and her children's other needs.

After awhile, Harmon said she moved in with a boyfriend and the children began splitting time between her mother and Landreth when she was at work.

She eventually had another son in September 2015, but Landreth didn't watch him as much as the older two children, Harmon said.

Harmon told jurors she didn't know many of the details of the 2017 investigation other than the fact she learned Landreth had been bathing the girl. She said she remembered telling Landreth her daughter was big enough to bathe herself and he should allow her to do so.

She admitted she allowed Landreth to continue watching the children after the investigation although her daughter would sometimes cry when she dropped them off and she'd told her on at least two occasions that he'd hurt her.

"I didn't have anyone else to watch her and I had to work," Harmon said.

Harmon gave contradictory testimony to Williams and defense attorney Michael McLeaish about the $400 she said she received from Landreth. She said the money was "just for the kids to go over there," but she also said the money was so Landreth could have sex with her daughter.

Harmon's former boyfriend Jonah Phillips, who didn't father any of Harmon's children, told jurors he rarely watched them because the older two had a "love/hate" relationship with him. He also said that at the time he was 600 pounds and struggling with mental health issues.

He didn't interact much with Landreth, but he does remember Landreth once telling him he didn't need a girlfriend because he had Harmon's daughter.

Under cross-examination from McLeaish, Phillips denied applying a negative connotation to the quote only because Landreth was arrested. He said the oddness of the statement had always been in the "back of his head."

The jurors also heard from two sexual assault nurse examiners and a licensed clinical social worker Tuesday.

The SANEs, Tela Whitley and Lisa Montoya, testified the injuries sustained by the child were among the worst they've ever seen, could not have been the result of childhood accidents and clearly were the result of repeated acts.

Whitley testified the child told her she'd told her mother Landreth had been giving her white medicine with his hand and his penis and her mother had replied, "He's stupid."

Kara Davis, the licensed clinical social worker, testified she worked with the child for 13 months following the arrests of her mother and Landreth.

Although she engaged in highly disturbing behavior during that time frame, she is now doing really well in the home of her adoptive parents, although she will likely suffer lifetime consequences as a result of the abuse, Davis said.

Forcing her to testify in a roomful of strangers would cause "severe regression," Davis said.

The state rested their case without calling the girl to the stand.
 
About Gums
An Odessa woman accused of allowing her young daughter to be raped over a three-year period in exchange for money was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

According to court documents, Shirley Harmon, 40, pleaded guilty to abandonment/endangerment and was sentenced to the maximum term allowed under her plea agreement. She’s still facing trial on one count each of continuous sexual assault and human trafficking.
 
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After deliberating less than 15 minutes, an Ector County jury Wednesday found Gary Landreth, 65, guilty of repeatedly raping a little girl during a three-year period.
It took a jury less than 10 minutes to give Landreth six life sentences. He could have received from 25-99 years on five of the counts and 5-99 years on the human trafficking count. Judge Denn Whalen of the 70th District Court opted to run four of the sentences consecutive to one another. The other two will run concurrently.
The native Odessan told jurors he would never have sex with young children because it could kill them. He also explained he believes young girls have a barrier that is broken during their first sexual experience and he wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone who would be expecting a virgin on their wedding night.

He has no explanation for why the girl showed such traumatic injuries, but he said he “knows for a fact” he wasn’t responsible. Landreth told jurors he believes Harmon’s mother coached the girl to say he sexually assaulted her because she was angry at him because she believed he was interfering with her relationship with the girl and her older brother.

Blaylock (grandmother) was continually trying to interfere in his relationship with the children, Landreth said.

“I told (Harmon) I’d give her $200 a month to keep her mother out of our business,” Landreth testified.

He insisted he did not give Harmon money to have sex with the girl.

“Why would I pay for something I had free access to the entirety of their whole lives,” Landreth said.

Assistant Ector County District Attorneys Rikki Earnest and Kortney Williams said the evidence clearly showed Landreth was guilty and reminded them of the many statements the girl gave forensic interviewers, the diagrams she drew on and her injuries.

Defense attorney Michael McLeaish said there’s no doubt the girl was the victim of horrendous abuse, but the question is whether Landreth committed it.

He pointed out that following the 2017 investigation, the lead detective on the case wrote in his report that he thought the girl had been coached on what to say. McLeaish asked the jury if it was possible she was coached again in 2019.

“He loved that little girl. He loved that little boy. He gave them a home, someplace to live and somehow that’s been perverted into the situation he’s in,” McLeaish said.

They could well send an innocent man to prison, McLeaish said.

“How many times does (the girl) have to say ‘Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary, Gary’? Is it 10 times, is it 100 times?” Williams asked. “She was not coached. She was not confused. She said it again and again and again.”

The girl clearly did not Google sex acts so she could imitate them during her forensic interviews and she didn’t consciously decide to exhibit highly sexual behavior during the interviews, either, Williams said.

“Gary was right when he said he’d only been with one woman because the other person he’s been with was that little girl,” Williams said, pointing to a picture of the child.

She was telling the truth in 2017 and she was telling the truth in 2019, Williams said.

Believe the evidence because “it’s the truth,” Williams urged the jury.

Harmon, 40, pleaded guilty to the abandonment/endangerment charge and agreed to testify against Landreth in exchange for having two other charges dismissed, continuous sexual assault of a child and human trafficking.

Harmon gave contradictory testimony to Williams and McLeaish about the $400 she said she received from Landreth. She said the money was “just for the kids to go over there,” but she also said the money was so Landreth could have sex with her daughter.
During the sentencing portion of the trial, the girl’s adoptive mother, Jennifer Mishler, testified that when she first began fostering her, she had no sense of identity. She had no opinion, no likes or dislikes and no creativity. She couldn’t be alone, couldn’t process or express her emotions and would often scream and break things.
A therapist worked for months with the girl on a book describing the abuse and her earlier life. Once finished, the girl had the option of reading it to her new parents or destroying it, Mishler said. The girl opted to destroy it and to begin her life anew.
Nowadays, the girl is a straight A student, loves to sing, has lots of friends and is doted on by her new grandparents and cousins, Mishler said. She’s also a “fantastic” big sister to the foster children they continue to take in.

@Satanica

I hope he gets shanked in prison.
 
There are so many cringy parts to this case, but this one was most nauseating to me:

”The native Odessan told jurors he would never have sex with young children because it could kill them. He also explained he believes young girls have a barrier that is broken during their first sexual experience and he wouldn’t want to disappoint anyone who would be expecting a virgin on their wedding night.”

I mean…ewwww. I’m glad to hear the victim is doing better, but to think that some of her earliest childhood memories are of this nightmare touching her is just so sad. Glad he got consecutive sentences, and twenty years for the mother is pretty good too (at least hopefully her ovaries will be empty by the time she is released…fingers crossed on that).
 
I have not found anything about the other children I hope they are somewhere safe and that the siblings are able to maintain contact with one another.

I hope they screened to see if the brother was abused as well so that if needed he gets the therapy to address the abuse.
 
God, that was hard to read. The rage I felt when the perp was talking about "barriers" and "not wanting someone disappointed on their wedding night because she wouldn't be a virgin."...just...no. I hope this monster gets dropped into GenPop and every night is his wedding night.
 
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