After Coy left, the girl lay in bed and then went to the bathroom; she later testified that there was "slobber" all over her. She found Carley's mom and told her that her stomach hurt and she wanted to go home. An unknowing Gina arranged a ride for her -- with Carlos himself.
On that drive back, he told her not to tell anybody about what had happened, she said. Coy said she was a great dancer, that he was going to open a dance studio and make her a big star, that he would buy her and her family anything they wanted.
Michael Hogue
Deron Neblett
Coy rebounded from poverty to pursue national attention as a rapper.
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Minutes later, Coy was telling that same story to the girl's grandparents. They had invited him in for menudo and heard the rapper praise the girl's dancing abilities. Later, memories of the scene caused her grandmother to weep on the witness stand. She had always thought her child was a great dancer, too.
The girl's version of the night seemed incomprehensible. Here was a rap star with legions of groupies -- well-developed women flashing breasts for him in postconcert euphoria. How could he possibly prefer preadolescent kids?
Judy Johnson, clinical director for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Sex Offender Treatment Program in Huntsville, hasn't made a case study out of Coy. But she says that the onset of pedophilia doesn't occur suddenly in middle age, it begins developing much earlier.
"They don't say, 'Ooh, she's really sexy, she's really coming on to me, I think I'll just explore this possibility,'" Johnson explains. "The preference was already there. Otherwise, it would have been sort of repulsive."
Most people, if they strayed into the notion of sexual attraction to a nine-year-old, would simply tell themselves, "I don't even want to think about that, that's just too weird," she says.
"As we grow up, most of us don't really fight the urges to molest little children," Johnson explains. "Our age preference for the mates we select usually matures with us."
Those who don't gain that maturity may have been affected by a variety of factors: early sex play and exploration, and relationships -- and rejection -- by peers. Another aspect is self-esteem. "What's driving a lot of these pedophiles is that need to feel powerful and overpowering, so they select sex partners that they can overpower and have complete control over."
Johnson is disturbed that Coy encouraged the girls to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacrewith him. She believes it hints to still darker impulses that could eventually escalate into violence over time.
Treatment for pedophiles is uncertain at best. The goal is to get them to avoid acting on their urges, "but as far as changing the urge, it's very unlikely that it will change over time," she says. "That's why they are so dangerous."
In general, Coy's past reflects some similarities with profiles of pedophiles, she believes. Most grow up without a strong male figure in their lives; they can "groom" associates to ignore the obvious signs of their perversion; and serial pedophiles often establish ways -- even dance studios for children -- to attract more potential victims, Johnson says.
"That's very common for pedophiles to create an avenue where they can have one victim right after another," she says. "It's unfortunate, but a lot of predators create their 'candy stores.' " Predators will select youngsters not likely to tell on them, or those unlikely to be believed or those prone to accepting bribes until they feel responsible for what happened. A pedophile can even convince girls "that they had seduced him somehow."
There were no feelings of seduction swirling around inside the nine-year-old friend of the Coy family. Accompanied by her mother, she told her story to Houston police investigators. On September 25, a stunned Carlos Coy was behind bars, charged with aggravated sexual assault of the girl and also of Odom, the mother of the child he'd fathered in a relationship that began when she was 13.
Coy quickly posted bail of $30,000 and began a counteroffensive to the allegations that ripped through the music scene as well as his personal life. Some concert dates were canceled. Children's Protective Services investigators temporarily banned him from contact with his own daughter. Coy told reporters he had even sworn off alcohol and marijuana.
He and his family said Coy was being smeared, that the girl's mother had put her up to saying she was molested because the mother had been scorned by Coy after an affair with him, an accusation the woman hotly denied.
Still, there was no physical evidence, no DNA samples or anything else to independently link him to sexual contact with the child. This was stacking up as a high-stakes swearing match between a nine-year-old girl and a 31-year-old rap star.
Content to call it a vendetta by the accusing parent, Coy tried to get back to normal business at Dope House, an abnormal proposition at best.
Late on February 3, Coy left the company offices, climbed into a van with homies and headed north to New Caney. There, they picked up two females who he said had been pestering them with phone calls saying they were bisexuals who wanted to meet the rap star.