Larry Pearson, 36, had his sentence imposed on Tuesday by jurors in the West Texas city after being found guilty on two counts of harassment of a public servant from April 2022.
The prosecutor said in the backseat of the patrol car, the defendant began to scream, kick the windows and spit at the plastic divider. When Sgt. Joshua Conklin opened the door to try and assert control, he got spit on. Then, Conklin and other officers put a spit hood on the defendant, which Pearson removed.
After a three-day trial, jurors deliberated for 11 minutes before returning a guilty verdict on both counts on Monday, the Avalanche-Journal reported. Under Lone Star State law, a person who harasses a public servant by causing them to come into contact with saliva, or various other fluids, commits a felony in the third degree. Such felonies typically carry a sentence of two to ten years in prison.
“You’re not going to get 70 years for something like this when you’ve never been in trouble before,” Gorman told the paper. “In Texas, if you’ve been to prison multiple times, two consecutive times and then you commit another felony that’s a third degree or higher, you’re what’s called a ‘habitualized criminal,’ where your minimum is 25 years.”
During the sentencing phase, jurors considered the defendant’s criminal history dating back to 2010, with a conviction on one felony count of aggravated robbery, three convictions for misdemeanor domestic assault, one felony conviction of domestic violence, and one felony count of continuous family violence. Pearson still faces a misdemeanor charge from the underlying 2022 incident that led to his latest arrest.