A Biloxi man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to the sexual battery of a 15-year-old.
45-year-old Derrick Lee Bowie entered the guilty plea last week in the Harrison County Circuit Court. Judge Lisa P. Dodson handed down a 30-year sentence, ordering 25 years to be served day-for-day in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections and suspending the remaining five.
Assistant District Attorney Haley Necaise Broom, who prosecuted the case, said the Gulfport Police Department began its investigation after being contacted by Child Protective Services about the assault. Authorities learned the victim had given birth at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, where Bowie was identified as the baby’s father.
“Buccal swabs were collected from both the defendant and the infant, and DNA test results showed a 99.99997% probability that the defendant was the father of the child,” Broom said.
During the questioning, Bowie admitted to engaging in sexual acts with this victim but claimed he was under the influence of drugs and tried to downplay his responsibility, prosecutors said.
When Bowie told the court that he had “messed up his whole life,” Dodson reminded him that his actions had devastating effects on the victim.
“I’m pretty sure you probably messed up the life of [the victim] as well,” Dodson said. “As a fifteen-year-old, she became a mother. … I’m sure that it destroyed her high school years, where she should have been young and carefree.”
Following the sentencing, Broom said the outcome ensures the accountability for the crime.
“No child should ever be forced to endure what this young victim experienced. While no sentence can undo the trauma she suffered, we hope this conviction provides the victim and her family some measure of closure and the beginning of healing,” she said.
