Jon Wattenburger
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Payne County jury composed of seven men and five women deliberated for five hours before convicting a 60-year-old Cushing man of repeatedly sexually abusing a young female relative during a six-year period ending in 2019.
Jurors recommended that Jon David Wattenburger, who did not testify at his trial, be given 25 years in prison for molesting the girl between the ages of 6 and 12, and five years in prison for molesting her again when she was 13.
At the close of a three-day trial this week, District Judge Phillip Corley ordered that Wattenburger, who had been free on $20,000 bail since his arrest in 2021, be held in the Payne County Jail without bail pending his sentencing on June 28.
During her closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Debra Vincent told the jury, “This case is very straight forward. Do you believe behavior like that can be confusing to a child? Do you believe it’s possible a child might get older and understand it a little.
Do you believe it possible a child might want to get it off her chest and tell a friend?
“A trusted person regularly put his hands on her. She has never exaggerated what happened to her. She figured out she didn’t have to do that anymore. She told a friend — her friend said, ‘tell your mom.’ You might say couldn’t this have been an accident, putting his hands under the waistband. How many times did this happen?
“How do we know this was for sexual gratification? There is no other reason why a grown man would put his hands in her pants. She’s 6, still under 12 when it stopped,” until “it happened at Christmas.”
In his closing argument, defense attorney Taylor McLawhorn told jurors, “We don’t take a person’s word at face value. When she ‘disclosed’ to her mother, she took her to a counselor. If somebody touched my daughter, I’m going to the police,” suggesting the girl’s testimony was not credible.
Urging the jury to believe Wattenburger was innocent, he emphasized, “This carries the potential of a life sentence. Mr. Wattenburger said he didn’t do it. The last person we heard from was (the girl’s older sister.) She told the story Mr. Wattenburger touched her. These stories just don’t make sense.
“You have to question (her) story. Just because a person says something doesn’t make it true,” the defense attorney said.
In her final closing argument, the prosecutor told the jury, “We’re supposed to question because her mother chose to do it differently than the defense attorney said he would. She’s given you her word.
“You can believe her, and you can do something about it.” Describing the defendant’s behavior as grooming, the prosecutor reminded jurors of the girl’s testimony that after Wattenburger touched her, he got her a toy at Walmart.
The investigation had begun when Cushing Police Detective Jerrod Livergood observed a forensic interview at the Saville Child Advocacy Center in Stillwater on Jan. 26, 2021, in which the then 14-year-old girl disclosed that she was molested at Wattenburger’s house while visiting for Christmas in 2019 when she was 13, an affidavit alleged.
She said she was asleep on a couch and woke up because she felt something, the affidavit alleged.
She said, “she tried to tell herself that it was a dream, and it didn’t happen, although always kept that in the back of her mind when she was around him after that,” the affidavit alleged. She said she avoided him the next day “and tried to tell herself that it was a dream so she could forget about it,” the affidavit alleged.
She said, “this was not the first time he has done something like this,” the affidavit alleged.
She said, “she didn’t remember the first time it happened, but remembered it happened a lot when she was younger when she was 5 or 6 years old,” the affidavit alleged.
She said he “would let her drive his Durango while she would steer and he pushed the pedals,” the affidavit alleged.
She said he “called it ‘belly rubs’ and he would start by rubbing her stomach and would eventually work his way down,” the affidavit alleged.
She said after each drive, he “would take her to Walmart to buy her a toy so she would focus on the toy and forget what happened,” the affidavit alleged.
She said, “she stopped going over there because she was tired of it happening,” the affidavit alleged.
She “also disclosed that she had seen a counselor previously and when she tried to talk to the counselor about what happened, she had a panic attack and was put on medication,” the affidavit alleged.
When Wattenburger was interviewed on Feb. 5, 2021, at the Cushing Police Department, he “admitted to allowing (the girl) to steer the vehicle for short drives out on country roads when she was 9-10 years old,” the affidavit alleged.
Wattenburger said, “she always asked to go for car rides,” the affidavit alleged. Wattenburger said she “would sit on his lap and he would hold her by the waist only,” the affidavit alleged.
Wattenburger was upset and said that he has never touched his young relatives inappropriately, the affidavit alleged. Wattenburger also denied giving “belly rubs,” the affidavit alleged.
“When asked about December of 2019 when (the girl) claimed to wake up to his hand in her pants,” Wattenburger said, “never, ever, I’ve never inappropriately touched,” any of his young relatives, the affidavit alleged.
The Cushing detective wrote in his affidavit, “I then asked Jon (Wattenburger) why (the girl) would say these things, and he said, ‘I have no idea."”
