Matthew Louis Reese pleaded guilty to three horrible charges: aggravated sexual assault of a child with a deadly weapon, sexual assault to a child, and aggravated sexual assault with serious bodily injury. As a result, Reese is facing a 95-year sentence and his young victim is facing a death sentence.
Dallas County prosecutors contend that 31-year-old Reese had a sexual “relationship” with his 15-year-old victim over a seven-month period and in the process gave her HIV.
The victim is not being identified because The North Dallas Gazette does not typically identify victims of sex crimes.
The victim, who is now 17, testified she had never been kissed or had a boyfriend. In December of 2012, she called a chat line and began speaking with Reese on the phone.
Reese later convinced her to meet with him at a Garland movie theater. He told her that if she didn’t agree to have sex with him, “it will make a man want to cheat”. Reese and the victim had intercourse in his vehicle and on other occasions, and she became infected with HIV.
“He told me he could see himself being with me,” she testified to Judge McDowell. “He was saying all the right things. He was telling me what I wanted to hear.” She further testified that Reese never used a condom.
Reese was jailed on a drug charges, the victim testified, and the two of them continued talking on the phone and exchanged letters.
The young victim later became ill and her kidneys failed, she testified. She spent over one month in the hospital; two weeks in a coma.
While the victim was in the hospital she testified that she spoke with Reese on phone and he commented about “the symptoms of HIV”. But she didn’t think much of his comments at the time because Reese told her he was “clean”.
The victim’s mother was aware that Reese was in jail and allowed her daughter to continue her relationship with him. The mother, who is only four years older than Reese, testified that she thought Reese was 18 years old.
According to her testimony, family members became aware of his actual September 2013 when they researched his criminal record. After the family’s discovery the police were alerted and Reese arrested.
Initially, the victim refused to talk about Reese to the police until she was diagnosed with HIV. She testified in court that “There was a point … Where I wished death on him”. Currently, her viral load is low and she takes medication each day.
