The mother of a Crawford high school student charged with sexual assault of a child and possession of child pornography has been arrested in connection to the case.
Shauna Hope Gerrish, 37, the mother of suspect Donnie Howard, 17, faces two counts of tampering with evidence charges.
According to authorities, Howard sexually assaulted an 8-year-old boy and recorded videos of the two incidents. The teen reportedly admitted to also taking nude photos of a 6-year-old.
Now, Gerrish is accused of viewing the illicit content on her son’s cell phone on two separate occasions and deleting it.
According to a complaint filed by the Crawford Police Department, on April 28 during an interview with the Waco Child Advocacy Center, a 15-year-old told them on April 2 Gerrish was made aware Howard’s cell phone had nude photographs of a child. Fifteen days later, Gerrish was reportedly made aware there was a pornographic video of an 8-year-old boy on Howard's cell phone.
She is accused of doing a factory reset of the phone on two separate occasions in order to delete the pictures and video. The complaint states this was done in an effort to prevent Howard from getting in trouble.
As of 11 p.m. on Monday Gerrish and Howard remained at the McLennan County Jail
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