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Molester Receives Four Life Sentences

By Scott E. Williams
Originally published by The Galveston County Daily News, August 14, 2004

GALVESTON — His oldest daughter called Derwin Dale Livingston a ‘sick, manipulative nymphomaniac.’

Prosecutors called him a man beyond rehabilitation and urged jurors to send him away for life.

The jury foreman said Livingston left many jurors feeling their ‘intelligence had been insulted.’

About the only person with nothing to say Friday about Derwin Dale Livingston was Derwin Dale Livingston.

Livingston gave lengthy, loud testimony on his own behalf earlier this week, but when visiting State District Court Judge Allan Lerner asked him if he had anything to say before being formally sentenced to life in prison, Livingston said only, “No, sir.”

A jury in the 56th State District Court sentenced Livingston, 62, to four life prison terms after convicting him in four sexual assault cases involving one of his daughters, now 15.

The girl got a chance to address Livingston directly after Lerner formalized the sentence. She scoffed at his defense that she made up claims about him assaulting her in order to be able to live with her grandparents, instead of with him.

“This ordeal wasn’t “an elaborate scheme to get out,” she said. “It was a fight for justice against you.”

She also told her father that she would not let her ordeal defeat her.

“In a way, I do have to thank you for one major thing,” she said. “You have made me so much stronger than I ever thought.”

Livingston also stands indicted on two counts of sexual assault of a child in cases involving his older daughter, who also gave a statement in court Friday. Prosecutors said they had not decided whether to pursue that case, since Livingston would be serving a life sentence.

The older daughter, now an adult, had testified that Livingston began molesting her in the late 1980s, when she was 10 and assisting him in making crystal methamphetamine.

Earlier this week, the younger girl testified that her father assaulted her several times during the months leading up to December 2001, starting when she was 12. The assaults occurred on the houseboat docked at Portofino Harbor in Clear Lake Shores where they lived. The case began at the end of 2001, as a Child Protective Services investigation prompted by an anonymous tip.

Livingston testified that he believed the tip came from his daughter, whom he said often called the agency ‘for fun,’ starting at age 6.

Santa Fe resident Rusty Norman said jurors had no trouble believing the girl’s story, especially after hearing Livingston’s testimony on his own behalf.

“It became clear that the little girl was believable, both in her testimony and with the other evidence supporting her, and when he testified, he kept getting caught in lies, which just made her even more believable,” Norman said.

Graphic descriptions of sexual acts were part of the trial, as were graphic images. Assistant district attorneys Charles Dunkel and Xochitl Vandiver showed jurors nude pictures of the child that were found on Livingston’s laptop computer.

Defense attorney John Thoma introduced a picture of Livingston’s penis that showed a piercing that the girl had not initially described when relating the attacks to investigators. He argued that she would have mentioned the piercing if she had really been attacked.

“A lot of it was extremely tough to listen to, and tough to look at,” Norman said. “I have a daughter at home, and several of the other jurors also have families, but to be fair and objective, we had to set those things aside and do our jobs as jurors.”

Thoma filed a motion to appeal the case and seek a new trial Friday afternoon.

All four life sentences will run concurrently. Livingston will become eligible for parole in January 2033, when he will be 90 years old. If he receives parole, he will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.