A Wood County jury convicted Justin Blaine Sicard of Winnsboro of continuous sexual abuse of a young child, a first-degree felony, on May 9 following a four-day trial.

District Judge J. Brad McCampbell sentenced Sicard to life in prison. Sicard’s sentence was ordered to be served consecutively with a 15-year sentence he received in Hopkins County in 2018. 

The conviction and life sentence prohibits Sicard from being released from prison on parole.  District Attorney Angela Albers prosecuted the case along with Assistant District Attorney Logan Sawyer.

In 2019 Investigator James Gillen began an investigation of Sicard for continuously sexually abusing a child between January 2013 and December 2016 in Winnsboro, when Sicard was 23 to 26 years old.

The child outcried at the Child Advocacy Center that Sicard had sexually assaulted her on more than two occasions and had sexually abused her over 100 times from the ages of 8 to 11.

In 2020, when the child was 15 and Sicard was 30, she again outcried at the Child Advocacy Center that Sicard had contacted her via social media and was sending her sexually graphic and explicit messages, including soliciting further sexual acts with the child. In those messages, Sicard admitted to the acts of sexual abuse he had perpetrated on the child from 2013 to 2016.

During the punishment phase of the trial, the evidence showed that Sicard began sexually abusing the child when she was 2-years-old, and the total number of acts of abuse was more than 200. The evidence showed that Sicard had previously served time in prison for burglary of a habitation and possession of a controlled substance and was on parole when he contacted the victim in 2020.

He was indicted in July 2022 and arrested in November 2022, also facing a warrant for online solicitation of a minor in Camp County.

Albers thanked the jury for the verdict.

“It is my hope that the victim can heal from these tragic events and live her life to the fullest,” she said.

“I appreciate the hard work and dedication of law enforcement, as well as all individuals involved with child advocacy and the prevention of child abuse, for their work on this case. Justin Sicard is a violent predator who is a danger to everyone in this county, but especially to our most vulnerable members – our children. Fortunately, we were able to put him back in prison for the rest of his life where he belongs.”