Clayton Lee Fought Pleads Guilty
PRESS RELEASE
91st District Attorney’s Office
CLAYTON LEE FOUGHT SENTENCED
Clayton Lee Fought, formerly of Eastland, pled guilty at approximately 3:30 p.m. on May 15, 2015 to the following offenses: Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child (60 years), Attempted Capitol Murder (60 years), and two counts ofIndecency with a Child by Contact (20 years, which is the maximum sentence allowed under law). Fought additionally waived all rights to any appeals as part of an agreement. While a sentence of over 60 years would certainly be justified, and likelyif the case were tried, Fought would nevertheless still be eligible for parole after having served 30 years. Current parole law dictates that a defendant sentenced in a first degree felony case, including a life sentence, becomes eligible for parole when his actual time served equals one-half of the sentence imposed or 30 years, whichever is less. Eligibility for parole does not guarantee that parole will be granted.
Present in the courtroom during the pleas of guilt, were the parents and other family members of the victims. The parents were at all times well aware of and supportive of the pleaagreement in these cases. They have all jointly asked that the media, including those on social media, to be respective of their privacy and to allow their families to continue to recover, stating: “The warm-hearted response and understandable outrage at what happened to our children needs to be balanced with our right to family privacy – this is especially important for our children. With these matters in mind, we the parents, reiterate that we do not wish to further comment and respectfully ask the public to also exercise restraint in their comments and allow our children to now move on with their lives. The primary reason behind the plea agreement was to spare our children from the additional trauma of reliving the nightmare at trial, in the presence of the defendant, and because we as parents believe that this plea agreement was in their best interest. Please honor our heartfelt requests. ”
Fought was sentenced by the Honorable Judge Steven R. Herod of the 91st District Court in Eastland.