Editor’s Note: Due to the nature of the crimes alleged, this story contains some graphic descriptions that may not be appropriate for children to read.   

It took fewer than 45 minutes Wednesday for jurors to convict a 65-year-old Elkmont man of sexually abusing and sodomizing his granddaughter.

William Wesley Bryant Jr., 65, of 22315 New Garden Road, was found guilty in Limestone County Circuit Court of three counts of sexual abuse of a child under age 12 and one count of first-degree sodomy of a child under age 12. 

He will be sentenced at a later date.

A 10-woman, two-man jury received the case about 3:30 p.m. following a three-day trial. The trial included testimony from the now-14-year-old granddaughter, a sister and cousin who discounted the granddaughter’s sexual abuse claim, and a videotaped interview in which the accused confessed.

Testimony wrapped up by 11 a.m. Wednesday morning, and jurors heard closing arguments from the prosecution and defense from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. before receiving instructions and beginning their deliberations. 

Circuit Judge Robert Baker instructed jurors before deliberations to consider each count separately and that they must be unanimous in their verdict, whether it is guilty or not guilty. Baker also told jurors the state, as represented by the Limestone County District Attorney’s Office, had the burden of proof and that it must have proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

District Attorney Brian Jones said jurors returned a guilty verdict on all four counts in 45 minutes.

Bryant faces 10 to 99 years in prison and a fine of up to $60,000 for first-degree sodomy, a Class A felony; and two to 20 years in jail and a fine of up to $30,000 on each count of sexual abuse of a child under age 12, a Class B felony.

The allegations

The victim, whose name is withheld by The News Courier for privacy, testified during the trial that she was sexually abused by Bryant at ages 5 and 10, and sodomized at age 11 in Limestone County. Bryant was ages 55, 60 and 62 at the time.

She testified her grandfather repeatedly touched her genital area on Christmas day 2007 and the day after. She said he told her it was “OK” when she questioned the behavior. She testified he touched her genital area again while they were on a deer-hunting outing during the 2012-13 hunting season, when she was 10. She also testified her grandfather made oral to genital contact with her during a snow day from school in February 2014, when she was 11.

Perhaps the most chilling evidence presented by the prosecution was Limestone County Sheriff’s Investigator Leslie Ramsey’s videotaped interview with Bryant before his arrest. After first denying then later admitting the sexual abuse on tape, Ramsey is heard on the video asking Bryant, “Did you say you were sorry?”

Bryant replies, “No. She didn’t seem to mind.”

Meanwhile, the defense, led by attorney Richard Jensen, called two witnesses — the girl’s sister and her cousin. The girl’s sister, Patra Salguero, said her sister could not have been sexually abused Dec. 25 and 26 of 2007 because Bryant was at home, while she, her sister and their mother were at their maternal grandmother’s home in Missouri those days. She also said they could not have opened presents around the tree because their grandmother is a Jehovah’s Witness and she did not celebrate Christmas.

Prosecution closing

In his closing arguments, Jones pointed out that Bryant confessed to the conduct during a videotaped interview conducted by Ramsey. He commended the girl’s bravery in coming forward and testifying and he told jurors it was their chance to stand up for the girl.

“Nobody stood up for (the girl), not the mother, not the father, not the sister, not the cousin, not even the Tennessee Department of Human Resources (who heard her allegation but did not follow through),” Jones said. “But Limestone County did. Tammy Embry did. (Embry is the Clements School technology facilitator whom the girl told in 2015). She called Brittany King of the Limestone County DHR. Tammy Embry stood up for (the girl). Leslie Ramsey stood up for (the girl). The Child Advocacy Center stood up for (the girl).”

Jones also lauded the girl for coming forward, saying she “had the courage to endure the pain and humiliation of sitting in this (witness) chair and telling the 12 of you” what happened to her.

He asked jurors to “take a stand for (the girl) as the voice of our community.”

The defense

Jensen asked jurors who they think has a better memory, a 12-year-old or a 5-year-old, suggesting the 12-year-old sister had the better memory and she testified she saw no sexual abuse.

He said the cousin testified she was present at the Bryant travel trailer on Cowford Road in 2014 when the girl said the sodomy occurred and saw no contact between Bryant and the girl.

Jensen said Ramsey, in her videotaped interview with Bryant, badgered and talked over the top of Bryant’s responses. He pointed out that at one point Ramsey even told Bryant she didn’t think it (the sexual abuse) happened as many times a the girl said.

During the interview, Bryant had no free access to food, water or a restroom, and he could not go home, Jensen said. As a result of that “trap” and the stress of the accusations, Bryant simply confessed. Jensen pointed out that at one point Bryant said to Ramsey, “If you say it happened, then it happened.”

Jensen said Bryant was “an old man with an eighth-grade education” who was tired and admitted to crimes he didn’t commit because he felt pressured.

Closing

In his closing, Deputy District Attorney Jim Ayers Jr. said the sister was not a reliable witness because she told Ramsey in 2015 she would never testify against her grandfather.

Ayers questioned Jensen’s argument about which child had the better memory. The sister was 12 when and the alleged victim 5 when the abuse was said to have begun in 2007. Ayers said he has been a been a parent to a 12-year-old three times and their minds are perpetually elsewhere.

“What did (the girl) have cause to remember?” Ayers said to the jury. “Her beloved toy Bratz doll (she got for Christmas) and the first time her grandfather betrayed her trust and innocence. Those are things a 5-year-old would remember. It has the ring of truth.”

He said the sister wrongly remembered the year of Christmas in Missouri with their maternal grandmother as occurring in 2007. He said that Christmas visit occurred in 2009, the same year the girl started getting ready for first grade in the Missouri school system. Ayers also pointed out that by 2014, the sister was living with her boyfriend and was no longer home.

The cousin, whose name is withheld because she is a minor, admitted she was with the girl at Bryant’s travel trailer on the snow day from school in 2014. She testified Bryant made no sexual contact with her or the girl that day. Ayers said she is lying to protect Bryant and that her admission that the three of them were at the trailer that day due to snow corroborates the girl’s story.

Ayers said the girl said she was touched. Bryant, on the videotaped interview, said the girl was touched. That leaves the cousin as the only one present that day who said no one was touched, Ayers noted.

As for Ramsey saying in the video interview she did not believe the sexual abuse happened as much as the girl said, Ayers said, “She was just doing her job. It’s an investigative technique — make him feel comfortable, give him reason to disclose the horrible, horrible, horrible circumstances.”

He countered Jensen’s claim that Bryant confessed on the videotape due to being badgered and kept in a room without free will to get food, go to the bathroom, get a drink or even go home. He pointed out that at one point Bryant confessed in front of his wife (the girl’s step-grandmother) to touching the girl.

“Nobody would admit such and act to a spouse unless it was true,” Ayers said. “It is a horrible, despicable, stigmatizing act to admit you committed.”