LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) – A former Angelina County commissioner was convicted of child sex crimes and sentenced to 80 years in prison.

Robert Garrison, 56, of Diboll Cheshire, was charged with four counts of aggravated sexual assault on a child and one count of indecency with a child. Cheshire, a former county commissioner, was last booked into the Angelina County Jail on Aug. 22. On Friday, a jury found him guilty on all five charges.

Visiting judge John Delaney imposed four 40-year sentences and one 10-year sentence. He imposed two consecutive 40-year sentences.

The case was prosecuted by San Jacinto First Assistant District Attorney Rob Freyer after the Angelina County District Attorney recused himself.

The state brought to the stand Friday ten witnesses who Freyer said have been victimized by Cheshire for decades.

“Bobby Cheshire is a despicable, rotten human being,” Freyer said after the sentence was decided. “This goes back 35 years. These women he beat can move on. The system had failed them many times, but not this time.”

Freyer said he made a “very generous plea offer” to Cheshire ahead of the hearing.

“We respect the defendant’s right to a jury trial,” Freyer said. “But when the evidence was so strong against him, he victimized these women again.”

Cheshire has been serving time for persistent violence against a family member since 2019 and was arrested on a Polk County warrant for aggravated sexual assault of a child in 2022 before his arrest on Angelina County charges in August.

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