On Thursday, January 16, 2025, pursuant to the jury’s verdict, Judge Allan Garrett sentenced Daneil Mathew Bible, also known as Mathew Bible, to incarceration in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for 20 years on each of two counts of the offense of Indecency with a Child by Sexual Contact. Then upon a motion by the prosecution stacked the sentences so the sentences run consecutively for a total of 40 years in prison. Bible will have to spend 20 years, day for day, before being eligible for parole. In addition, the jury returned a maximum fine of $10,000 for each county for a total of $20,000 in fines. The defendant was represented by Zachary Hudler of Johnson City in Blanco County. The case was prosecuted by Wiley “Sonny” McAfee working as a special prosecutor for District Attorney, Perry Thomas; Assistant District Attorneys (ADA’s) Camilla Cutbirth, and Kelly Bazie.
The trial began with jury selection on Monday, January 13, 2025 and concluded on Thursday, January 16, with the jury’s verdicts. The evidence at trial demonstrated that Bible had previously lived in the City of Blanco, in Blanco County, Texas. The indictment in this case charged Bible with touching the breasts and genitals of a girl under the age of 17 on or about January 1, 2011 in Blanco County. Evidence at trial also showed the child was actually around 5-6 years old and in the first grade at the time of the incident. The child was 16 when she finally told a friend what had happened to her when she was younger. The child’s friend told the victim’s mother, and the mother immediately took action the next morning by contacting law enforcement at Blanco Police Department. An investigation ensued and it was learned there were three other victims of abuse at the hands of the defendant over a period of time that spanned 30 years. Two of those persons testified at trial about the abuse to which they were subjected over a period of years. The third victim passed away before she was able to testify as to what happened to her when she was 12 years old in 1994 at the hands of the defendant. However, the defendant actually entered a plea of guilty to three offenses against that victim and was placed on 10 years of probation for the offenses against the now deceased victim. The judgment in that case listing the offenses and the plea of guilty to those offenses was admitted as evidence at the defendant’s trial.
The jury deliberated less than an hour before reaching a guilty verdict. The punishment phase of trial began shortly after the verdict, and the jurors sent out a note at one time during their deliberations which suggested they would like the sentences to run consecutively or one after the other. Again, jurors deliberated slightly less than an hour before reaching a unanimous verdict assessing the maximum punishment in prison along with a maximum fine on each offense. The judge immediately sentenced the defendant to 20 years on each offense, and agreed when the prosecution requested those cases be “cumulated” or stacked. Bible was 50 years old at the time of sentencing so he will not be eligible for parole until he is at least 70.
