WICHITA FALLS (TX)
Wichita Falls Times Record [Wichita Falls TX]
January 2, 2025
By Lynn Walker
A Wichita Falls pastor convicted of child sex crimes has died while serving prison time.
A custodial death report from the Texas Attorney General’s Office confirms Ronnie Killingsworth died in custody at 12:20 a.m. Thursday.
He had been incarcerated in the Pack Unit in Navasota in Grimes County and was transported to the hospital for shortness of breath, according to the report filed Thursday afternoon. Killingsworth was later pronounced dead at the hospital with a preliminary cause of death of cardiac arrest and respiratory failure.
Killingsworth died a natural death, according to the report. Results are pending from an evaluation by a medical examiner or coroner to determine cause of death.
He was 79 years old and suffered from heart trouble, according to testimony in his trial.
Killingsworth, longtime pastor of Rephidim Church, was convicted in May of sexually abusing three underage girls who attended his church.
The trial in 78th District Court attracted dozens of Killingsworth’s supporters from the church. The prosecution was handled by attorneys from the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office to avoid conflict of interest because Killingsworth’s son was a Wichita Falls police officer.
All of the victims testified they had been touched sexually by Killingsworth, one when she was just 5 years old.
Killingsworth denied the charges on the stand.
After short deliberations, a jury convicted him on six counts of indecency with a child through contact in incidents that happened between 2000 and 2011.
The same jury sentenced him to 42 years in prison, meaning he wouldn’t be eligible for parole until he was 100.
In August, Killingsworth lost a bid for a new trial after he claimed evidence at the original trial was “insufficient to support a verdict, judgment and sentence in this cause.”
(This story was updated to add new information.)
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