MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – A former Little League baseball coach was convicted of sexually abusing a child. A Montgomery County judge sentenced 63-year-old Larry Cole to life in prison Wednesday.
Prosecutors believe between 2005-2015, Cole may have sexually abused more than a dozen boys in Magnolia’s Timbergreen community.
During the early 2000′s, two families in that small Montgomery County community believed they were living the American dream.
“Baseball, football, hunting, fishing, 4-wheelers, everything a good country town has,” a parent of one of Cole’s victims said.
Both families said they received a warm welcome from Cole, a father and, at that time, a coach of the Tomball Little League.
“His son would come down to our house, they came to our kids’ birthday parties,” a mom of one of Cole’s victims said. “He would go to their birthday parties. Seemed normal in the very beginning.”
Until the mother noticed a shift in Cole’s behavior.
“As the boys got older, I noticed him wanting to kind of be with the boys by himself and take them to the deer lease and go places — it just seemed odd,” she recalled.
A father of one of Cole’s victims said his son went from being an athlete and an honor roll student to being labeled the bad kid.
“In our little community, it really turned bad,” he said.
The community became divided in 2015 when the first victim came forward years after he was abused.
“My son cried out when he graduated high school and he had an abuse problem with drugs and alcohol,” a mom said. “We found out that this man was giving our kids alcohol without us knowing.”
In 2017, Cole pleaded guilty to sexually abusing two boys between 2005 and 2006. He was given a plea deal, which resulted in five years probation and him registering as a sex offender.
“It wasn’t just my child. Right now, we are finding out there was minimum of five or six and we know there is more out there,” one parent said.
Assistant District Attorney Laura Bond and Tamara Tyler, who tried this latest case, said Cole used elaborate toys, money, games and even his own children to lure other neighborhood children to his home.
One mother told us she later found out Cole even snuck into her son’s bedroom in the middle of the night.
“There is no doubt there is more out there,” a father of one of Cole’s victims said. “I’m going to guesstimate there’s some more young men that are out there that are afraid to say something because of their age in life now, but it’s alright to come forward. Everybody needs to have justice and have that clear piece of mind.”
Cole will be eligible for parole in 30 years. Bond and Tyler say there is no statute of limitations for these types of cases involving sexual abuse of a child, so it’s never too late to come forward.