Cook convicted of sexual assault of a child

On Thursday, December 5th, a Cass County jury convicted 33-year-old Kennie Lewis Cook, Jr., of Atlanta, Texas, for three counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. The jury assessed punishment on each charge at forty (40) years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice – Institutional Division, along with a $1000.00 fine.

Fifth District Judge Bill Miller ordered that two of the sentences would run concurrently. He then ordered that the third sentence would run consecutively to those sentences, not concurrently, making this an eighty (80) year sentence. Because of the nature of the charge, Cook will not be eligible for parole until he has served a minimum of onehalf of his sentence, which would make him 73 when he is first eligible for parole.

He was originally charged with three counts of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child under 14 years of age from Atlanta. This charge is a 1st-degree felony, punishable by five to 99 years or life in TDCJ and/or a $10,000 fine.

Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Ross presented testimony from the victim, eight years of age (seven at the time of the crime), who testified that Cook would come over to his great-grandmother’s house after church to eat. While there, Cook, who was a music minister for the church the victim attended, performed various sex acts on the victim and forced the victim to perform a sex act on Cook. Testimony from a forensic interviewer with the Texarkana Children’s Advocacy Center and the victim’s counselor was also pivotal in securing a conviction.

Cook is an Mt. Pleasant ISD school teacher and an assistant band director. According to KTAL article on April 10 when he was charged, “Mount Pleasant ISD officials said after his arrest in February, Cook, a high school teacher, and assistant band director, immediately reported to the superintendent’s office to address the matter. Superintendent Judd Marshall said Cook was immediately placed on administrative leave. Marshall said Cook was in his fifth year with the district, and there have been no complaints about him. He said, ‘the kids are devastated.’”