WAXAHACHIE, Texas — A former Alabama Baptist “cowboy church” pastor was sentenced to 50 years in prison without the possibility of parole after a Texas jury found him guilty April 5 of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
According to the Corsicana Daily Sun, Mark Allen Green, 42, will not be eligible for release from prison until he is 92 years old. Green was arrested May 31, 2012, on charges of sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl in Waxahachie, Texas. The news disrupted the Cowboy Church of Marshall County, which fired him after only a couple of months as pastor.
The Alabama Baptist previously reported that Randall Stoner, director of missions for Marshall Baptist Association, released a media statement that said, “We are saddened by the circumstances surrounding his termination but cannot comment further due to legal issues involved.”
In September 2012, a grand jury in Ellis County, Texas, returned a “no bill,” or refusal to indict. Another grand jury in neighboring Navarro County, however, handed down an indictment in July. According to the local newspaper report, a Navarro County jury of six men and six women returned a guilty verdict after one hour and 15 minutes. Deliberations over the sentence took 30 minutes. In addition to time in prison, he was fined $10,000.
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