Texas Rampage Followed Sex Abuse Claims
The gunman police say went on a shooting spree outside a Texas courthouse this week had become increasingly frustrated by sexual misconduct charges his daughter lodged against him and two of his brothers, and he was so convinced of his innocence he rejected a plea deal that would have kept him out of prison, records and interviews revealed.
Police say Bartholomew Granger opened fire Wednesday outside the Jefferson County courthouse in Beaumont, killing an elderly woman and wounding three others, including his daughter and her mother, in what’s now coming into focus as a final, desperate act of a man who believed he and his brothers had been wrongfully accused.
“This has been going on for a long time, and I guess he finally snapped,” said one of the brothers, Ulysses Granger. “He couldn’t take it anymore.”
Bartholomew Granger, 41, was in custody Friday on $4 million bond after being charged with the murder of a bystander, Minnie Ray Sebolt, 79, of Deweyville.
(MORE: 1 Dead, 3 Wounded in Gunfire Near Texas Courthouse)
Meanwhile, his daughter remained hospitalized in critical but stable condition, a police spokeswoman said. Authorities say Granger shot the 20-year-old woman and ran over her with his pickup truck as he tried to leave the scene.
The rampage occurred just hours before Granger’s daughter was to resume testimony in a trial in which she accused her father of sexually assaulting her nine years ago. It was the latest episode in a saga that has led to two other criminal cases, a series of lawsuits and a sharply-divided family.
Granger’s daughter made the allegations against her father and uncles in 2009, shortly after she moved out of her father’s Houston home and went to live with her mother in Lake Charles, La., court records show.
One of Granger’s brothers, Lyndon, was scheduled to stand trial in the same Beaumont courtroom on a charge of indecency with a child once Granger’s trial was finished, although officials say both cases are now on hold because of the shooting investigation.
Lyndon Granger, 43, was out on bond at the time of the shooting. He has since been arrested and held on $500,000 bond at the direction of the trial judge, John Stevens.
Ulysses Granger, 44, was charged with sexual assault and prohibited sexual contact in Houston, but those changes have been dismissed, according to court records.
During trial testimony Tuesday, Granger’s daughter recounted details of the alleged rape. She also testified that she first spoke of abuse during a conversation in which she and her mother were discussing whether to obtain a protective order against Granger.