The appeal of former YouTuber Earl David “News Now Houston” Worden to have his sexual assault of a child between the ages of fourteen and seventeen years old was denied on Tuesday by the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas.
Worden was convicted in 2022 of sexually abusing one of his daughters in 1997 when she was 16 years old. He was sentenced to a twenty-year term that he had initially agreed to before filing his appeal.
The appeal was based on a variety of claims by Worden, including that there was jury misconduct due to outside influences, improper comments by the trial court during jury deliberations, the state calling Worden a racist and a Mormon, and ineffective assistance of counsel.
Worden was seeking a release from prison and a new trial during his appeal. In the extensive 49-page ruling the Court denied all of Worden’s claims.
In its ruling, the Court spent a good amount of time dealing with Worden’s claims of ineffective council. The court essentially found that what little errors that they found made by Worden’s attorney were not enough to justify a dismissal of his case.
Likewise, the Court ruled that a loud argument between three trial attendees, who were arguing after one accused another of “supporting a rapist and sex offender” was heard by the Jury who were in the nearby Jury room, however, none of the jurors heard statements that improperly affected their verdict in any particular way.
Worden, then known as News Now Houston on his YouTube channel, was already a convicted sex offender and prolific member of the Photography is not a Crime “citizen journalist” group when he was tried for this set of charges in 2022.
His News Now Houston channel still has 179,000 subscribers and 545 videos with videos dating back to July of 2016. It is still believed to be pulling in revenue for Worden, with Social Blade estimating the page pulling up to $19.00 a month and $222.00 a year from YouTube traffic.
Strangely, those associated with Worden have also faced abuse charges. News Now Patrick, aka “PayPal Patty” had been arrested on at least one occasion for assaulting romantic partners.
Floyd “News Now Omaha” Wallace has a felony conviction for making terroristic threats and currently is embarking on a life of sex tourism in Colombia and Brazil.
Jack “Texas Sheep Dog” Miller, another known supporter of Worden, was arrested for possession of child pornography last year after police found child pornography on his computer while doing an unrelated search.
It is unclear if Worden will appeal Tuesday’s decision, as it stands now, Worden will not be available for release until at least the year 2042.
