TYLER (TX)
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Associated Press
TYLER, Texas - A former East Texas principal was convicted of sexually assaulting seven girls and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
A jury on Thursday sentenced Russell Thomas Hirner, 43, after deliberating for about four hours. He was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child earlier in the day.
"I accept responsibility," Hirner, the former principal of the Longview Baptist Christian Academy, testified. "I couldn't bring myself to tell and I vowed to God that after it came out I'd make a disclosure."
Prosecutors had pushed for life in prison.
"You are not doing this to Russell Hirner; Russell Hirner did this to himself and his family," Rusk County District Attorney Michael Jimerson told jurors in closing arguments.
Posted by kshaw at April 16, 2005 08:32 AM