Texas pastor's widow "a truly evil person who tortured her children"

A judge in Burnet County this week handed down five back-to-back life sentences for a woman in what he called the worst case of abuse he had even seen.

It took a jury about an hour to find Misty Rae Hopkins, 49, guilty of five counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and four charges of indecency with a child.

Charges in the case related to sexual abuse that happened in Burnet County between 1999 and 2005.

However, testimony during trial showed that Hopkins abused one of her daughters from the time she was at least 7 years old until she was 21, according to the district attorney's office for the 33rd and 424th state judicial districts.

Four of her children also testified that Hopkins and her now-deceased husband John Hopkins created an atmosphere of isolation, hiding them from the outside world and keeping them out of schools, the office said in a statement.

John Hopkins and Misty Rae Hopkins abused the children, both as a couple and individually, the district attorney's office said.

The trial began on Monday and ended on Wednesday with 424th District Judge Evan Stubbs sentencing Hopkins to the life sentences along with 20 years in prison for each of the indecency charges.

In sentencing her, Stubbs addressed Hopkins directly.

"Yesterday you said that your husband was the head of the house and God will hold him responsible," Stubbs said. "And I'll simply tell you I hope he does and I hope he does you as well. And that's for another day."

Stubbs called the abuse unimaginable and ordered all sentences to be served consecutively, meaning that even if Hopkins were paroled for one sentence, she would remain in jail to serve the next sentence.

John Hopkins served as a pastor at a local church in Burnet when the abuse occurred, the office said.

The abuse remained unreported until the children were able to escape the home after all had turned 17 years old, the office said. The chief victim in the case reported the abuse to police outside of Burnet County in 2014.

Prosecutor Stacy Burke also called Hopkins' crimes the worst abuse case she had even encountered in her career. Burke called Hopkins a "truly evil person who tortured her children," the office said.

Syl wrote:What can turn a mother into such a cruel and evil person?
I remember reading Dave Pelzers  trilogy starting with 'A boy called it'....I never forgot it.
This woman sounds like she was cut from the same cloth as his mother.