WOODVILLE – The state AG’s office announced a victory in the name of justice Friday when a Warren man was handed down a 30-year prison sentence.
According to a news release from Attorney General Ken Paxton, Michael Clint Wallace, Jr., 48, was sentenced last week on the charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child. Wallace was originally convicted by a Tyler County jury in April 2019, and sentenced to 70 years, but the case was overturned on appeal in 2022.
In a decision handed down in the Texas Court of Appeals, Ninth District, it was determined that “significant portions of the court reporter’s record were either lost or destroyed.”
Assistant attorneys general Matthew Shawhan and Ahrum Kim, from the Criminal Prosecutions Division of Paxton’s office, represented the State of Texas in the proceedings.
The Tyler County Sheriff’s Office began investigating Wallace in 2014, and the Tyler County District Attorney’s Office was able to obtain an indictment on the charge of continuous abuse of a young child (under 14) in 2016.
According to Paxton, the DA’s office then recused themselves when the child described additional sexual abuse to an Assistant District Attorney, and attorneys with the Office of the Attorney General were appointed as special prosecutors on the case.
Wallace’s victim was a family member, according to the AG’s news release, whom he assaulted over the course of four years, beginning when the victim was five years old, and ending when, at nine, she told a family member about the abuse.
The case against Wallace was set to be retried earlier this month, but the defendant pleaded guilty to the charge, as well as to waive his right to appeal for the 30-year sentence.
According to the AG’s office, Wallace will not be eligible for parole until he serves at least half of the sentence.
Wallace is currently in the custody of the Tyler County Jail as he awaits transfer to a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility
