EDINBURG (TX)
The Monitor
January 21,2006
Brittney Booth
The Monitor
EDINBURG — Former Trinity Worship Center music minister and convicted sex offender Robert Dale Franklin received 18 years in prison Friday after he pleaded guilty to violating his probation by possessing cocaine.
Franklin, 39, stood handcuffed and shackled in an orange county jail uniform in front of Judge Mario Ramirez in 332nd state District Court, the same judge who sentenced Franklin to 10 years probation in March 2004.
At that time, Franklin pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a minor and admitted to having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old church member who had come to him for mentoring. He also acknowledged providing the boy with cocaine and marijuana. In exchange for pleading guilty to the two sexual assault charges, prosecutors agreed to drop 10 other felony counts.