Twin Falls man convicted of lewd conduct

Francis Parks, of Twin Falls, was sentenced Monday to at least five years in prison, and the girl didn't hesitate to read her statement in court.

“He used to be my No. 1 role model,” she said. As she confidently told her story of the betrayal she had felt and how the love he had shown her might have been a ploy to gain her trust, Parks, in his prison-issued orange jumpsuit, sat , head down.

Parks, after the crime on July 29, 2023, attempted to communicate with the girl when he left the house and evaded justice for a time, according to court records.

“Your knight is sad because he has no purpose, he cannot protect and serve his princess,” said a message recorded by Parks to the girl in August 2023 on the victim's YouTube channel. “I miss you I love you.”

But gray-haired Parks, according to the victim's mother in her speech in court, caused a lot of harm to the family. Everyone in the immediate family underwent various therapies, but despite the pain, the victim vowed to stay standing.

“I will be a strong young woman without you by my side,” the girl concluded.

District Judge Bill Hancock handed down his five-year sentence, 10 of which was indeterminate, for lewd conduct with a child under 16, but not before the court hit a snag when his mother, who accused Parks for grooming his child for several years, requested that he serve a minimum sentence of nine years in prison, more than the five years agreed to in a plea agreement.

Her request was to ensure her child would be 21 by the time Parks was released from prison, she said.

It was enough for Hancock to reveal that he had been distressed by the matter this weekend. Reading the pre-sentence and psychosexual evaluations, he said he began to believe Parks was not truthful in his statements and was inclined to impose a sentence of more than five years. But that would have allowed the defendant to withdraw his guilty plea and the case could have gone to trial.

Reports indicate that Parks said he had consumed alcohol and “woke up” to find himself fondling the victim, contrary to the girl's statements.

Additionally, questions arise about whether the girl was Parks' first victim, although no other charges relating to a similar crime were ever filed against him, Hancock said. Parks maintained that the girl was his first and only victim, according to the report.

During a recess, during which Assistant Prosecutor Kiel Willmore spoke with the victim and her family and Public Defender Preston Franzen spoke to Parks, it was decided to proceed with sentencing, Hancock accepting the five-year recommendation.

Parks made a statement before the sentencing and expressed remorse following the incident.

“I think about it every day,” he said, adding that he couldn’t sleep well.

“I’m sorry,” he concluded.

Parks, after assaulting the girl, said her life was over and begged her not to tell anyone — “otherwise she wouldn't see him again,” according to the police report.

He then asked her to wait 30 minutes before telling anyone and left the house, leaving many of her belongings behind.

It wasn't until late September that law enforcement officers caught up with Parks and arrested him, according to court records. Details of his arrest were not immediately available, but the victim's mother said in her victim impact statement that the time Parks was in hiding was “terrifying” for the family. Security cameras were installed in their home and family members were “hypervigilant,” she said.

She explained that before the incident, Parks told her daughter she could only trust him because the world was full of “dangerous” people and he bought her clothes she could only wear. when his parents were not there.

He also gave the girl alcohol, she said.

“I thought you couldn’t do anything wrong,” the victim said in her statement. “I was wrong.”