Waco woman testifies to sexual abuse as a teenager

WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A Waco woman testified Wednesday that she was 15 years old, drinking Pink Whitney Vodka and “smoking weed” with her best friend when her friend’s godfather sexually assaulted her in a Homan Avenue apartment in March 2020.

Her friend’s godfather, 32-year-old Michael Ross Parker, is on trial in Waco’s 19th District Court on two counts of sexual abuse of a child. Because of Parker’s criminal history, the second-degree felonies charges are being upgraded to first-degree felonies.

The woman, now 20, told the jury of seven women and five men that she dropped out of University High School in her sophomore year after a close friend was murdered and another died in a car accident within a few days, and that she subsequently fell into a state of depression and anxiety.

At the time, she was living with her mother and grandmother. She testified that her mother worked nights and slept during the day and that the two often had a contentious relationship. During this time, she lived with her best friend, Daisha Elliott, on Homan Avenue. She told jurors that on the afternoon she was sexually assaulted, she was drunk and high on alcohol and marijuana supplied by Parker, who was 27 at the time.

She testified that she was home alone with Elliott and Parker when Elliott received a text message from Parker, who was watching television in another bedroom. He told Elliott he wanted to engage in sexual activity with the teenager, she said.

She said that although she was no longer a virgin, she had not yet experienced what Parker was suggesting, so she agreed to go into the bedroom with him.

“A lot of thoughts were going through my head,” she said. “I thought: Did I want him to do this or not? Was it too late to say anything?”

She said that after the sexual act, she got up to leave and Parker asked her where she was going.

“He said, ‘We’re going to get it done.’ I didn’t stop him. I just laid there,” she said. “I thought, ‘Stop, you don’t have to do this,’ but I was scared.”

She said Parker sexually abused her, and she went to the bathroom and started crying. A year later, the teen told medical examiner Kerry Burkley and sex offender Dr. Soo Battle that she was in pain and bleeding after the abuse. Burkley and Battle also testified Wednesday.

The woman testified that she did not tell Elliott about the assault, and the two put on matching shirts that Parker had made for them, went to the mall with friends and posted videos on social media later that night.

She admitted to having previously suffered from depression and attempting suicide “multiple times” by taking overdoses of over-the-counter painkillers and slitting her wrists. However, she said her emotional state following the sexual assault alienated her from her mother and friends and left her in a psychiatric hospital.

It wasn’t until a year later that she told her mother about the attack, during an argument at her grandmother’s house. She said she grabbed a piece of glass and locked herself in the bathroom. Her mother broke down the door and asked her what was going on.

“I said, ‘If you really knew me, you would know I was raped.’ And I slit my wrists one last time and passed out,” she said.

Prosecutors Tara Avants and Jessica Washington concluded their argument after testimony from Battle and Lee Carter, a psychologist from Waco.

During his defense testimony on Wednesday, Parker’s attorney Brian Pollard called Elliott, who testified remotely from Michigan.

Elliott, now 19, told jurors that she was very close to her godfather Parker: “He took care of me in a way my father couldn’t.” She said she too had suffered from depression and Parker saved her by convincing her not to take anything away from her life.

She denied that she, Parker and the teenager were ever alone in the Homan Avenue apartment that day, and told jurors that at least seven other people, including four children, were in the house the entire time she and the teenager were there.

She denied that Parker, who has six children with five different women and another on the way, ever sent her a text message talking about having sex with the girl and said the two were never alone in the same room.

She also denied that Parker gave them marijuana and vodka that day. She called the woman a liar and told Avants during cross-examination that she did not know why she would make up the story that Parker had sexually abused her. They were no longer friends, she said.

In further defense testimony, Elliott’s mother, Shannon Williams, and Shana Perez, Parker’s pregnant girlfriend, said Parker was a good person and an “entrepreneur” who they said would not sexually abuse a young girl.

“He’s my best friend,” Williams said. “I opened my home to him.”

Pollard concluded his testimony Wednesday evening. Avants and Washington hope to call a rebuttal witness Thursday morning who will testify that Parker sexually assaulted them in 2008. Visiting Judge Roy Sparkman will hold a hearing before deciding whether the testimony is admissible despite Pollard’s objections.

If convicted of sexual assault, Parker faces between five and 99 years in prison, possibly even life. The charge against Parker was upgraded to a first-degree felony because he was sentenced to three years in prison in 2016 for possession of amphetamines.

All rights reserved.