Opinion ID: 2633317
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Evidence concerning Ledbetter's sexual abuse of L.R.

Text: L.R. was Ledbetter's former stepdaughter. She testified that she was about five or six years old and in kindergarten in 1989 when Ledbetter began sexually abusing her. While sleeping at home on her parents' bed one night, she awoke in pain to find Ledbetter inserting his fingers inside her vagina. L.R. testified that when she told Ledbetter that she was going to reveal the abuse, He said that if I told on him he would go to prison and that I would break up the family. And that I'd be really selfish. A couple of days to a week later a similar incident occurred. Like the first incident, it occurred at night and at home, but this time Ledbetter entered L.R.'s bedroom while she was sleeping. After this second incident, similar instances of abuse occurred about every other night after L.R.'s mother had gone to bed. L.R.'s former step-aunt, and J.M.'s mother, testified that she peeked through an opening in L.R.'s bedroom door one night and observed Ledbetter caress L.R.'s genital area. She did not tell anyone about what she saw. Although most of the incidents occurred inside the home, L.R. testified that there were occasions when Ledbetter abused her while the two were riding motorcycles in the desert. This abuse continued in the same manner for approximately the next five years. By 1994, when L.R. was about 11 years old, the frequency of the abuse decreased to maybe once a week or once a month. L.R. testified that for the next year and a half Ledbetter committed various acts of sexual intercourse, along with oral sex and digital penetration. He also once inserted a foreign object into her vagina. L.R.'s mother testified that she once caught Ledbetter holding a vibrator to L.R.'s belly area. But he explained his behavior to her at the time by saying that L.R. just wanted to know how it felt. L.R. testified to many other incidents and to ways that Ledbetter had sexually abused her, including masturbating himself while digitally penetrating her. By 1995, the frequency of the abuse decreased even further to [m]aybe once a month and continued for about the next three years. The last incident occurred in 1998 at Mount Charleston, where Ledbetter engaged in sex with L.R. in the back of a pickup truck. L.R., who by this time was 14 years old, eventually disclosed the abuse to a schoolteacher. She was embarrassed, scared, and concerned that she had just broken my mom's heart. The police were contacted, and an investigator who interviewed L.R. testified that at the time she was very visibly shaken, visibly upset. She was crying. A physical exam of L.R. was performed by Registered Nurse Phyllis Suiter, who is a licensed sexual assault nurse practitioner. Nurse Suiter testified that her exam was highly suggestive of sexual abuse or of penetrating injury to the hymen and was consistent with L.R.'s story and a female who had experienced vaginal penetration since she was nine or ten years old. Dr. Jay Johnson, a physician and professor of pediatrics, testified that he had reviewed Nurse Suiter's exam of L.R. and essentially agreed with her conclusions. L.R.'s mother testified that when she confronted Ledbetter he started crying and shaking and kept saying he was sorry. The following day, Ledbetter said to his former brother-in-law, I screwed up. I'm afraid I'm going to jail. I'd rather die than go to jail. That's why I have to leave no matter what. Ledbetter later wrote letters to L.R.'s mother, one of which was read into evidence and stated in part: I don't know how to even say what's on my heart other than how terribly sorry I really am to have hurt you like I did. I was really stupid and confused. I really wanted to tell so you could help, but I don't think it would have made that much difference because I think either way I still would have been looked at as if I were guilty a hundred percent anyway. And you would most likely still have wanted me out of your life or dead.