AUTHOR’S NOTE: This story contains portions of police documents detailing criminal charges of a sexual nature involving a child. Due to the disturbing nature of the charges, reader discretion is advised.

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WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A man charged with nearly 20 felony counts of sex crimes against a child is set to face a judge and jury of his own after police said he and a former girlfriend sexually abused a 12-year-old girl multiple times over several months in 2018.

Shannon Lee Wells, 41, of Wichita Falls, was indicted in October 2022 on 18 felony charges involving an ongoing sexual relationship with a female victim who was 12 years old at the time of the alleged assaults:

• 1 count of continuous sexual abuse of a child (First-degree felony offense)
• 9 counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child (First-degree felony offense)
• 8 counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact (Second-degree felony offense)

Wells, who was originally charged in 2019 with four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, was arrested again on November 4, 2022, and booked into the Wichita County Jail on the 18 new charges after not showing up to a scheduled court date on November 3, 2022. He’s been held in jail since then on bonds totaling $900,000.

Jury selection for the trial of Wells began on Monday, September 25, 2023, at 1:30 p.m. at the Ray Clymer Exhibit Hall of the Wichita Falls MPEC.

The charges against Wells stem from multiple incidents that allegedly took place between March and December of 2018. During that time, he and his former girlfriend and co-defendant, Casey Chapman, 40, of Wichita Falls, are accused of engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with a 12-year-old female.

Both Wells and Chapman were initially indicted in April 2019, each on four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, with both receiving numerous additional counts from a grand jury in 2022.

According to the arrest affidavit, during a forensic interview at Patsy’s House in January 2019, the victim recalled several sexual encounters with Chapman that took place between March 2018 and December 2018. The victim said Chapman was a family friend who lived in the same apartment complex, and she would often spend the night with Chapman and hang out at her house.

The victim said she had confided in Chapman that she had developed a crush on her. According to the victim, Chapman responded by asking her if she wanted to enter into a relationship to discover if she was really bisexual.

The affidavit said the victim told police she at first had only been having sex with Chapman, but then Wells found out about it and demanded sex as well.

Chapman reportedly told officers that the assaults by Wells took place several times between Halloween and Thanksgiving of 2018 and her sexual relationship with the girl began before that in March. 

Chapman accepted a plea deal in May 2023. As a part of the plea deal, Chapman pleaded guilty to the charge of continuous sexual abuse of a child and was sentenced to 30 years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility without the possibility of parole.