Killingsworth was sentenced to 42 years in prison for sexually abusing girls

A Wichita Falls pastor convicted of sexually abusing three underage girls who attended his church was sentenced Wednesday to 42 years in prison.

Ronnie Allen Killingsworth, who turned 79 on Tuesday, will be eligible for parole at age 100 after serving 21 years of his sentence.

Killingsworth, pastor of Rephidim Church in Wichita Falls, was booked into the Wichita County Jail on Wednesday to begin serving his sentence, according to online jail records.

He was convicted of six counts of indecent exposure to a child through contact relating to incidents that occurred between 2000 and 2011. He faces at least two years in prison on four of these charges. He was eligible for probation on the remaining two counts.

More: Updated: Wichita Falls pastor found guilty of sexually abusing girls in church office

Defense attorney Chuck Smith asked the jury of six men and six women to give him the minimum sentence of two years on four counts and grant him probation on the other two counts.

Smith asked jurors to consider Killingsworth’s age and health. He has had two heart surgeries and wears a pacemaker.

But prosecutor Davye Jo Estes said a guilty verdict is only as good as the punishment.

More: In the packed courtroom: Victims give details of indecency allegations against pastor

“The community should realize that we will not tolerate child abusers,” she said.

The panel deliberated for an hour and then recommended a prison sentence of 15 years in each of the four cases and 12 years in each of the remaining two cases.

Prosecutor Bill Vasser asked 78th District Court Judge Meredith Kennedy to serve four of the 15-year sentences concurrently, meaning they would be stacked one after the other.

Kennedy agreed, so the total is 42 years.

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Testimony in the trial lasted a week, with each of the three victims, now adults, describing how Killingsworth touched them inappropriately behind the closed doors of his church office.

Killingsworth testified in his own defense that the incidents never occurred. Relatives and members of the Rephidim Church congregation also testified on Killingsworth’s behalf, saying they never saw him alone in his office with children.

Much of the testimony in the trial related to the practices and teachings of the Killingsworth Church, which was founded in 1971. These practices included a doctrine of “separation,” according to which members who left the church were to be shunned, and the setting of dates for the Rapture, the ascension of believers to heaven.

Vasser and Estes are with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office and were assigned to the case to avoid a possible conflict of interest since Killingsworth’s son, Allen, works for the Wichita Falls Police Department.

So many observers crowded the gallery to watch the trial that Kennedy moved it to the larger 30th District courtroom.

This article originally appeared in the Wichita Falls Times Record News: Killingsworth sentenced to 42 years in prison for molesting girls