Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 1, 1995 TAG: 9508010047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Dallas Morton, 41, who lived in Shawsville at the time of the incidents, also was convicted of three counts of making indecent proposals to youths under 13. He had faced a total of nine charges, including one for possessing a weapon as a convicted felon. Judge Kenneth Devore found him not guilty of the weapons charge, but guilty of the rest after a bench trial in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
Morton, who came into the courtroom in shackles, was convicted of two other aggravated sexual assault charges in Roanoke in 1988.
He also was found guilty of two counts of aggravated sexual assault in January after a 9-year-old testified that Morton molested him.
He was sentenced to a total of 20 years in jail for the January charges. He will be sentenced on Aug. 30 for the most recent ones.
The four victims who testified Monday ranged in age from 11 to 13.
Three of the youths said they were molested in March, April and May 1994 in a room at the Shawnee Motel in Shawsville. Morton, who was living in the motel room at the time, developed a relationship with two of the boys by taking them fishing and to the Franklin County Speedway, where he worked as a pit-crew member.
The boys, 12 and 13 at the time, said Morton molested them when they spent the night with him in the motel room, each on separate occasions in May 1994.
Barbara Bibbs of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office began to investigate the case when the 13-year-old told police of his experience.
The boy called the police the day after the incident. He also talked with a 12-year-old who had also been sexually abused by Morton.
The 12-year-old asked if his friend could tell the police to "come to my house also."
Another 11-year-old boy, who had been living in the Shawnee Motel with his mother and 16-year-old brother, said he was sexually abused while in Morton's care.
The youth's mother had asked Morton to watch her two sons while she attended her father's funeral in Georgia.
The 11-year-old said he slept on the floor of the motel room, and his brother slept beside Morton in the bed.
While his older brother lay asleep, he said, Morton molested him and asked the him to have sex.
"He said he would kill me" if he told anyone, said the youth, now 12.
A fourth boy said Morton sexually abused him in 1992 when he spent the night at a friend's house where Morton was living at the time.
The youth, now 14 years old and 12 at the time of the incident, said Morton held a knife to his side while fondling him.
The boy said if he told anyone, Morton "would take care of me."
by CNB