More arrests made in sex assault of 11-year-old
CLEVELAND, TX
The attack happened over the Thanksgiving break in Cleveland and it's taken more than two months for police to arrest anyone.
Police say they have arrested 10 suspects now in connection to the case and they aren't done making arrests yet.
It is a case that has stunned this small community.
"It disgusts me. I mean being a parent, I don't know what I would do if it was my little girl, so it's heartbreaking," Liberty County resident Angie Pemberton said.
Ten young men, ages 17 to 26, now are charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child. Four were arrested last week and six more charged Wednesday.
One of them was already being held on an unrelated charge.
"Next thing I know here are the cops swarming up in the yard," Sonya Porchia said.
Sonya Porchia says her son, Marcus Anthony Porchia, is one of the accused suspects who are currently sitting in the Liberty County Jail.
"It doesn't look good for him at all, and I hate he is going through this," she said.
His mother and grandmother believe there is more to the story.
"It makes me feel extremely bad that he is even caught up in it," his grandmother, Shirley Porchia, said. "I don't have to lie for Marcus. I'm not going to lie for Marcus because I don't see no way in God's heaven that Marcus fooled with this child."
"I feel for her. I hate it happened. I really do I hate that it happened to her, but my son says he had nothing to do with it, and I believe him," Sonya added.
Investigators say the 11-year-old victim was gang raped late last year but have not released a lot of details of the crime in the ongoing investigation.
It has left those who live in the area concerned by what's going on around them.
"Hey we need to come together as a society and stop this," Liberty County resident Jim Corbin said.
Others are hoping for swift justice.
"They'll get what's coming to them because God don't like ugly," Liberty County resident Alexis Criss said.
Police have named three more suspects and are asking anyone with information to call Cleveland police.
