Tyler

EDITOR'S NOTE: The name of the victim is withheld from this article to protect his identity and encourage the reporting of such crimes.

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

A cross-dressing child molester was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday after he admitted to duping a 13-year-old boy into having sex with him while he was dressed as a woman.

Dominique "Dom" Debose, 21, Tyler, pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child for a May 2 offense and was sentenced to the maximum life prison term by 241st District Judge Jack Skeen Jr.

Prosecutors asked for the life sentence while Debose's defense attorney requested deferred adjudication probation. Debose, who will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years, intends to appeal the sentence.

During closing arguments, Assistant Smith County District Attorney Joe Murphy said Debose met the 13-year-old victim on an Internet chat room and had him meet him near a movie theater in Tyler and had sex with him in his car. The defendant met the boy a second time and drove him to a store, where he molested him in his car, Murphy said.

He called the case disturbing and said Debose was a grown man preying on boys and tricking them into thinking he was a woman for his own sexual desires.

He said Debose sexually assaulted the young boy, the only victim they know of, twice in two weeks

When Debose was in the car with the boy in front of the victim's house the second time, a man the boy knew confronted Debose, chased him down the street and held him there until police arrived, Murphy said. At the scene, they found a wig and other cross-dressing paraphernalia.

Murphy said that according to examinations by probation officers, Debose was at a high risk for repeat offenses.

Defense attorney Don Davidson said his client made a written statement that he believed the boy was older than 13. He said they made contact over the Internet and when he met the boy, the victim was smoking a cigarette and they had consensual sex.

He said the risk of his future behavior was factored by probation officers because of the nature of the charge against him. He said Debose was sexually abused as a young child, which could have led him to his sexual problems.

Skeen said that because of the facts of the case, there appeared to be a significant risk to young boys who come into contact with Debose dressed as a woman.

During the sentencing hearing, Debose's cousin Amaka Ajiba testified that the defendant moved from Florida to live with her in Tyler about a year ago and he worked at a fast food restaurant here. She said he was a great person and she would continue to let him baby-sit her 7-year-old daughter. She said he began dressing in drag a couple of months before his arrest and she knew he smoked marijuana.

She said she understood that he pleaded guilty to molesting the young boy but she didn't believe he did it.

Dominique "Dom" Debose
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