Caylon Whittington

After DNA evidence led to his arrest earlier this year, a Mineola man will serve 15 years in prison following his guilty plea to sexually assaulting a girl at a camp in Van six years ago.

Caylon James Whittington, 30, pleaded guilty Monday in the 241st District Court to burglary of a habitation with intent to commit a sex offense.

The Smith County Sheriff’s Office in April said DNA technology pointed to Whittington as a suspect in the case of someone inappropriately touching a girl while she slept at Sky Ranch Camp near Van in March 2015.

Also in court, Whittington pleaded guilty to an assault of a family or household member charge for an unrelated offense in December 2019.

For that charge, Whittington was originally given seven years of community supervision in June 2020 when he entered a guilty plea, according to online court records.

He was sentenced Monday to five years in prison, which he will serve concurrently with the 15-year sentence.

On March 8, 2015, deputies responded to Sky Ranch regarding a report of an unknown white male entering a cabin at night and inappropriately touching the girl in the bed. The male was seen by a female chaperone at the camp before he fled on foot.

The sheriff’s office said the girl received a sexual assault exam and forensic interview at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Smith County and she told investigators what happened to her.

Investigators spoke with people matching the victim’s description of the suspect and searched the area. Officers met with Whittington at that time; however, he said he didn’t know anything about the incident at Sky Ranch. In March 2015, he lived near the camp with an address about 1 mile from the cabin.

In October 2020, a DNA system found a match appearing to be Whittington from the sexual assault exam. After giving a DNA sample to the Texas Department of Public Safety crime lab, results returned April 1 this year showed Whittington is a match, according to police. Whittington was arrested April 6 in Llano County.

In October 2020, he was sentenced to two years of community supervision, including 100 community service hours, after pleading guilty to driving while intoxicated. In 2018, he was sentenced to three months probation for assault (family violence), according to judicial records.

Whittington has been in the Smith County Jail since April 19 on a $250,000 bond. He will receive 205 days of jail credit for the burglary and three days of credit for the assault, according to judicial records.