FORT WORTH -- A 20-year-old man whose juvenile crimes started with trespassing was sentenced Tuesday to 27 years in prison for raping a handcuffed woman at gunpoint after he and two other men forced their way into her Watauga home and robbed her and another woman.
Morris Clay Mackey pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of aggravated sexual assault. He asked a Tarrant County jury to assess his punishment.After about five hours of testimony, the jury deliberated 47 minutes before recommending the punishment, which was imposed by 371st District Judge Mollee Westfall.Westfall ordered Mackey to serve the sentence after he completes a 20-year prison term he was assessed in June for violating the terms of deferred-adjudication probation in the 2008 robbery of a restaurant deliveryman.Defense attorney Jeffrey Grass tried to persuade jurors to grant probation to Mackey, who was eligible because the robbery conviction is being appealed.But prosecutors Tim Bednarz and Kacey Fickes presented evidence of Mackey's criminal history, including juvenile probation for trespassing and failure to identify himself to a police officer and a year in the Texas Youth Commission for theft.After turning 17, Mackey received deferred-adjudication probation for a 2009 robbery. He was ordered to serve 60 days in jail for violating his 2008 probation and 180 days in jail as a condition of his 2009 probation.Bednarz said Mackey's crimes escalated until Feb. 23, 2010, when he and the other armed men forced their way into a town home in the 6700 block of Park Vista Boulevard. The men tied up one woman and handcuffed the other.Mackey was left to guard the women while his partners loaded stolen items, stole the women's vehicles and took an ATM card to get money, authorities said.Bednarz said Mackey put the handcuffed woman on a couch, forced her to perform oral sex, then raped her."They were one trigger-pull from a capital murder," Bednarz said, urging jurors to give Mackey a long sentence.One accomplice, Gary Wayne Bryant, has been sentenced to 55 years in prison for a Fort Worth burglary. The Watauga case was presented to the jury during the sentencing phase of that trial. The third suspect, Damon Cook, awaits trial.Martha Deller, 817-390-7857Have more to add? News tip? Tell us
