A couple charged with sexually abusing a 12-year-old who gave birth to a child by the male attacker threatened the victim from jail, according to evidence presented at an Aug. 14 hearing in Jefferson County Criminal Court. In addition, the $3 per call the jail charges both defendants is subsidized by child support payments earmarked for the suing victim’s support.

Joshua Booker, 32, of Beaumont, and Danielle Davis, 30, of Port Arthur, are both currently in the Jefferson County Jail on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child resulting in the pregnancy of a child under the age of 14. The couple were arrested in October 2023, more than a year after the victim gave birth.

According to the arrest affidavit, on August 12, 2022, Detective Frank Coffin III of the Beaumont Police Department (BPD) was dispatched to the Medical Center of Southeast Texas to evaluate a 12-year-old who had just given birth. Doctors believed the baby was born at 37 to 38 weeks gestation and estimated that conception occurred around the first week of December 2021.

During the investigation, the teen’s family members reported that the man who impregnated her was an adult family friend/cousin. However, the Child Protective Services (CPS) investigator pointed out inconsistencies with the family’s account to Coffin. She was suspicious of this and suspected that Booker was the child’s father.

The young mother, a prepubescent child, was later questioned at Garth House and according to the detective’s testimony, it was clear that the victim had been manipulated.

Davis, the victim’s mother, later came forward to police to speak with investigators. At first, Davis reportedly denied knowing the teen was pregnant or even knowing who the father might be. Davis later admitted to investigators that Booker was the father and that she did not notify authorities because if Booker was arrested, she would have lost his income since the two were partners, Coffin explained.

According to the police report, Davis told the investigator she knew Booker had sexually abused the teen about two months before she became pregnant because the victim had screamed at her. Davis said she instructed the teen to lie to investigators about her screaming.

Booker’s DNA was collected and identified as that of the father of the victim’s toddler.

“Just when you think humanity cannot descend to a lower plane, they dig even deeper into matter, looking for a lower plane of existence… We’re talking about a 12-year-old giving birth to a child, and nobody is revealing the truth about how the child was impregnated,” Judge John Stevens said during the couple’s court appearance in April.

Now, four months later, the two were summoned before Stevens again – and once again the judge asked how depraved people can be.

Booker, who appeared first in court, was accused of threatening to kill the victim’s father in phone calls, emails and letters. Through his attorney, Booker asked the court to reduce bail.

According to defense attorney W. Marcus Wilkerson, Booker has been “locked up for quite some time” and would benefit greatly from having his bail halved from the current $150,000 to $75,000. Prosecutor Daniel Boyd presented evidence that Booker continued to commit crimes while in prison and asked for the current bail to be doubled.

“Listen, you don’t want me out, so I’m going to kill your daddy,” a message from Booker to the victim was recorded in the court transcript.

“This is getting on my grandmother’s nerves,” Booker said in another message, underscoring his claim that harm was being done to those who support the victim. A longer message read in court included another threat against the life of the victim’s father.

“You were apparently caught threatening to kill others at least three times,” Stevens said, summarizing the evidence. But there was more.

“The defendant also sent handwritten letters to the threatened individuals,” Boyd added.

The letters may have been relatively inexpensive, prosecutors said, but the phone calls and electronic messages are very expensive. At $3 per call and message for over 6,200 messages, the court calculated, the bill exceeded $18,000 to $20,000. For defendants who plead indigence, the court questioned how over $20,000 could be raised for communications in prison. Booker said the funds come from Social Security checks he received from family members, as well as half of the child support paid by the father of the victim Booker allegedly impregnated.

“This is a criminal offense,” the judge speculated, since the maintenance order undoubtedly stipulates that the funds are to be used for the care of the minor child for whom they are paid.

“This is a really creative way to violate the rule of law,” Stevens added, but he cannot allow it to continue. “There are illegal activities going on in the county jail now. It’s happening in a clandestine way that needs to be stopped.”

“What you did in prison is, to say the least, very disturbing.”

“These are death threats against individuals involved in criminal proceedings…that’s what’s troubling people. That’s what’s troubling the community,” Stevens noted in announcing his decision on the motion to reduce bail.

Under Stevens’ order, Booker’s bail was doubled to $300,000. Booker is no longer allowed to communicate electronically with anyone outside of prison without an appeal – except with his attorney. In addition, all written communications will be reviewed by prison staff before being mailed.

“You have to look far and wide to find more disturbing circumstances” than a prepubescent child being impregnated by a 32-year-old man, Stevens said, adding that Booker also had committed at least one previous violent crime against a family member, which increased the range of punishment. “Nature demanded a high bond.”

“If you post bail, you will be placed under house arrest” without contact with the victim or his agents, Stevens added. “If you fail to comply with the court’s orders a third time, your bail will not be returned to you.”

Davis, who was summoned to court second along with her attorney Langston Adams, was also accused of making contact with the victim and “a pattern of threatening behavior toward others.”

“In the downloaded jail conversations, Ms. Davis contacted the victim in this case … who is in the care of her grandmother,” Boyd told the court before playing a recording of a phone conversation in which Davis called her mother, Helen Shankle, and asked to speak to the sexual assault victim. Voice recognition and a special code for defendant Davis confirmed, according to a jail official, that the person on the phone was indeed Davis.

In the recorded conversation played to the court, Shankle stated that she was caring for the victim’s baby, born to her 32-year-old abuser, and then put the victim on the phone.

“Are you OK?” Davis asked the victim. “Are you sure?”

“You have to tell them you didn’t tell me (about the ongoing sexual assault by Davis’ partner Booker) until the last minute… so mommy could get out of here,” Davis lectured the child. In the same phone call, Davis asked if the child would testify against Booker, pointing out that if the victim testified, Booker would face “a long time” in prison.

“There’s a lot of it,” Boyd said of Davis’ phone calls to reach the victim, as well as the three-way conference calls that allowed Davis to communicate with co-defendant Booker.

“It’s not your place to make her feel guilty,” Stevens said of the defendant, who played on the child’s emotions by implying that it was the child’s fault if Booker went to prison. The judge then blocked Davis’ access to electronic communications and phone calls, except to her attorney. “That won’t happen again.”

Davis, whose bail is set at $100,000, has not requested a bail reduction. Attorneys for Davis and Booker have said they are ready for trial.