The trial of an elderly former preacher from a Marble Falls church started this week in 424th Judicial District Court.
Francis Young is on trial for alleged sex abuse of two children that reportedly began May 2023. The trial began Jan. 6 before a 12-member jury evenly divided between men and women.
Assistant District Attorney for the 33rd Judicial District, Carson Walker, is leading the prosecution. Local attorney Austin Shell is defending Young.
During his opening statement Jan. 6, Shell declared, in the absence of their parents, the 76-year-old Young was taking care of two of his grandchildren, one boy, one girl, both under 14.
Shell explained, Young realized both children apparently suffered from bladder difficulties, which made them prone to bed-wetting and urinary tract infections.
“He would clean them up,” Shell said. “He did things a grandfather should and would do.”
During subsequent months, several professional health care providers examined both children, the attorney added.
“Not one of them said anything about sexual assault,” Shell said. “There was not a boo-boo, a scratch of anything to indicate touching in any sexual way at all. Zero. This (trial) makes no sense to me. And, I am going to ask you (jury members) to send him (Young) home.”
However, during prior testimony removed from jury presence, the mother of both children recalled both children told her Young had “touched them in a bad way down there.”
“It happened a lot,” the mother said.
According to reports, Young was a preacher in Marble Falls at The Sanctuary Pentecostal Church until December 2022. The church confirmed he was a member but not in a leadership role at the time of his indictment in 2023.
Young was arrested and released on bail in June 2023.
