UPDATE: Ernest is going to jail for a very, very long time. After his conviction, the jury took a half-hour to decide on his punishment: life, twice: once each for indecency with a child by exposure and contact.
Back in July of last year, an 8-year-old girl who lived near 43-year-old Ernest May in a trailer park on the outskirts of Lufkin told her father that May had molested her. She later said that May had showed her his "wrong spot," and when she refused to touch his, he decided to touch her "wrong spot." At some point he also gave her $5.
May denied everything, even though the girl was able to describe both the inside of his trailer - right down to the exact number of beer cans on a table -- and a tattoo of a dragon skeleton on May's upper thigh. He resisted his subsequent arrest and is said to have kicked the crap out of the back of the cop car that took him into jail.
After somehow raising enough money to pay his $25,000 bond, May was free to prowl the Piney Woods some more. And prowl he did...
Deep in the hot afternoon of May 24, officers received a report of a half-naked man -- Ernest May, naturally -- lunging at passing cars on state highway 94. He had stopped bum-rushing cars by the time cops arrived and was wearing pants, but they noticed he was toting a big blade in the pocket of those pants. And when police rolled up, May took off running.
An Angelina County constable tackled him, and May fought hard, reiterating his mistaken belief that he would not be going to jail. But go to jail he did: this time for public intoxication and resisting arrest, and we imagine, other charges stemming from violating the terms of his bond. And this time, there would be no bonding out, for May has been in the Angelina County jail ever since.
The battered and sweaty but still proudly smiling May you see in the mugshot above was shot on the day of this year's arrest. (Since he also allegedly admitted to his jailers that he might have a problem with drugs and alcohol, we feel safe in wondering if some of that heavy perspiration might be meth-inspired.)
May's jury trial for the sexual assault of the little girl should conclude later today. He has pleaded not guilty.
