Diana Sex Offender Gets 4 Life Sentences, Extra 20 Years

GILMER — After earlier pleading guilty, 59-year-old Mark Randall Beasley of Diana has received four life sentences and an additional 20 years in an Upshur County child sex case. Beasley was charged with four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child. District Attorney Billy Byrd says the victim had been placed with Beasley and his wife following a history of sexual abuse at the hands of her mother and others, including some in Gregg County. Byrd says Beasley began abusing the child when she was just 8 years old and eventually molested her more than 20 times. The judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively — meaning theoretically, Beasley would not be eligible for parole until 2148.