State presents opening statement, first witness in child sex case

July 11--First Assistant District Attorney Eric Erlandson told members of a jury Tuesday morning that he hopes they find 34-year-old Andrew Colby Livingston guilty.

"Yesterday you heard this was a continuous sexual abuse of a child case, but we weren't able to tell you how bad it was," Erlandson told jurors in the 235th District Courtroom. "... It's going to be difficult for me to prepare you for how bad this case was. It's a really disgusting case."

Erlandson described to jurors how the stage alleges Livingston inappropriately touched, kissed and had sex with a then 12-year-old girl over the course of about three years. She is 16 now.

The Register's policy is generally not to name victims of crimes of a sensitive nature.

Erlandson said Livingston and the girl had intercourse for the first time about three weeks after he met her.

"The first time they had sex he claimed that it slipped in," Erlandson said. "That's what he told her. She cried the whole time. She cried after it. He cried after it out of guilt and shame, but he kept doing it, over and over and over again."

The girl was staying at his home on Grand Avenue in Gainesville where Livingston's mother and grandmother lived. The mother and grandmother had a bedroom and Livingston had a bed in the living room that he later shared with the girl, according to Erlandson and testimony by the victim.

"It actually gets worse than that," Erlandson said.

Erlandson said even before they started having sex, Livingston had placed a camera in the bathroom so he could watch the girl take a shower.

"He admitted this to her," Erlandson said. "This whole time, he was taking pictures of her. Ladies and gentlemen that's going to be hard to see, but they tell the story. Exactly what happened."

Last year, incidents occurred where the girl could no longer stay with Livingston, so she stayed with one of his friends, Erlandson said.

Erlandson said the girl ended up telling the friend what was going on and he later came to the police.

The girl, who was the first witness brought in by the state to testify, said she "felt like a housewife."

She said she did all the laundry, cooked and cleaned some.

The girl said they had sex at least every three days.

"He would make me perform oral sex on him for food," the girl testified about when she wanted to have CiCis or Subway.

Livingston, who is representing himself, told Judge Janelle Haverkamp he wanted to wait on making his opening statement until after the state presents its case.

Gainesville-based attorney James Moss is sitting in on the trial with Livingston in an advisory only capacity.

During cross-examination, Livingston tried to impeach the witness due to inconsistent statements. She was not impeached.

He asked the girl multiple times about where she told his friend what was going on.

He argued she couldn't keep her story straight because she reportedly told his friend on a porch, in a car and in an Explorer.

The trial is scheduled to continue before Haverkamp in the Cooke County Courthouse on Wednesday.

Livingston remains in custody at the Cooke County Jail in lieu of $427,500 bail on charges of possession of child pornography, continuous sexual abuse of a child, injury to a child, sexual exploitation of a minor and assault on a public servant, according to jail records.

During a previous interview with the Register last summer, Gainesville Police Chief Kevin Phillips said there were three victims in connection with the child-related charges Livingston is facing.

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