Mark Elliott Jones, 49, of McKinney, Texas, was arrested and charged with two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
One of the victims wrote a letter to God revealing the abuse. The note was discovered by the child’s parents, who filed the police report which led to an arrest and conviction. During the investigation, an officer discovered a second child who was being abused by Jones.
“Jones sexually abused two children who he had ongoing access to over a period of several years,” the Collin County District Attorney said in a statement. “The two victims were 10 and 14 years old.”
“Judge Andrea Thompson assessed punishment at 35 years in prison,” the statement continued. “By law, a sentence for Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child is without eligibility for parole.”
PEOPLE confirmed that Jones was found guilty on Monday and will be on the state’s sex offender registry for the rest of his life.
“It is a sad day in the community when we learn that a sexual predator has been abusing even one innocent child for years,” District Attorney Greg Willis said in the statement. “But to learn that this predator sexually traumatized not one but two innocent children is simply unbearable.”
