Photo credit: Grimes County District Attorney’s Office
A Navasota man is heading to prison for the rest of his life after being found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
The Grimes County jury took just 15 minutes on Thursday to sentence 79 year old Robert Shannon Crawford of Navasota to life in prison for the assault he committed in 1995 of a 12 year old girl.
Crawford came under investigation in the summer of 2021 after being accused of sexually assaulting a 14 year old boy. During that investigation, Navasota Police and the District Attorney’s office learned the 12 year old girl was forced to get an abortion, after being impregnated by Crawford.
They also learned of at least 3 other survivors of assaults from Crawford. One was in Conroe in the 1970’s, and another was a 10 year old girl from Mexico, who moved to Navasota in the 1980’s.
Investigators said that Crawford was making plans to flee to Mexico before his arrest on September 5th of 2021. Crawford told them he had sold his Navasota home, and had a one-way ticket booked to Mexico for the next day. When he was taken into custody, he had a passport, and an under belt designed to hide money.
District Attorney Andria Bender said it was “among the most egregious child sexual abuse cases” she has ever handled.
Crawford faces an additional $10,000 fine, and was taken into custody Thursday.