Abilene woman gets 25 years for her part in child sex abuse

Nov. 02--An Abilene woman accused, along with an Abilene man, of continuously sexually abusing two girls under 10 pleaded guilty Wednesday to the charge in exchange for 25 years in prison.

Chelsea Diaz, 30, and Howard Dee Sturgis, 56, are accused of continuously sexually abusing two girls, each younger than 10 years old, over the course of more than two years, according to court documents.

Prosecutors offered Diaz a deal to testify against Sturgis, which she did Wednesday. In exchange, Diaz pleaded guilty to a continuous sexual abuse of a child charge and received the 25-year prison sentence to begin immediately. The indecency with a child charge she faced was dropped.

Originally, Diaz's trial was scheduled for Jan. 16.

Testimony in the second day of Sturgis' trial focused on whether the girls made an outcry of abuse occurring.

The prosecution rested its case Wednesday, while the defense played video of a forensic interview with one of the girls who claimed she was abused.

In it, the 7-year-old girl is being interviewed at the Abilene-Taylor County Child Advocacy Center by a forensic interviewer. The interviewer asks the girl about what she likes to do for fun and if she knows the difference between the truth and a lie. The girl says she knows the difference and likes to hula-hoop for fun.

They talk about the girl's puppy and whether she knows what drugs and alcohol are. The girl says she knows what alcohol is but has never seen drugs before.

Next, the interviewer asks the girl if anyone has ever talked to her about keeping her body safe. The girl replies "no." The interviewer shows the girl a drawing of a nude girl and asks the girl to identify the body parts. The interviewer then asks the girl which places on the drawing no one should ever look at or touch. The girl points to the chest, genitals and butt of the drawing.

The interviewer then asks the girl if anyone has ever tried to look at or touch her in those places. The girl initially denies it, but then she says a classmate saw her chest once. The interviewer asks if anyone has looked at or touched the girl in her private places and told her to keep it a secret. The girl says no.

Additionally, the nurses who performed the sexual assault examination on the girls testified Wednesday that both girls told them about the alleged abuse.

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