A convicted sex offender, charged in Friday's stabbing of a mother and her nine-month-old baby, is now charged with aggravated sexual assault. Police say Ronald Lynn Gober, 40, attempted to sexually assault the unidentified woman Friday after stabbing her multiple times. He then allegedly stabbed her infant daughter several times. The mother is still in critical condition while the child has been upgraded to serious condition.
Gober has also been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and injury to a child. Both the mother and the child are expected to live, but the stabbing raises questions about the difficulty of watching registered sex offenders.
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Police described it as a particularly brutal crime -- a woman repeatedly stabbed, then an attempted sexual assault and an infant stabbed several times. The alledged attacker is already on ten years probation for indecency with a three-year-old girl. District attorney James Farren says it's not surprising. "It is a small step for many of these people from a sexual assault to a stabbing or a shooting or a beating," he said.
The big question is how to keep up with registered sex offenders. Police report as many as 600 live in the city and they're clearly bothered that Gober may have stabbed a mother and child. "They're both victims in this case. That's a major concern to us. We look at the sex offender side, this is a child that he may have had contact with and had contact with -- (there) could have been another victims," Jerry Neufeld with the Amarillo Police Department said.
In fact, police say they're still looking into that possibility, but at the same time, they try to keep track of all 600 sex offenders -- most admitting it's a difficult task. "Part of their violation is they're no longer registered, at least wherever they're registered is no longer accurate, they've moved, and they've not re-registered," Farren said.
Police say that makes their job much more difficult. Probations and parole tries to track down offenders, but as the district attorney says, it's hard to keep track of all of the offenders all of the time.
The police department says they're taking a proactive approach to sex offenders. They say just last week, they filed charges against six men who failed to report a change of address and that they'll continue to do so.
Farren says the registration system is good, but it might need some fine-tuning to be more effective. Authorities say the public can be a big help, For example, the Texas DPS' sex offender website is for the public. If you know of a registered sex offender near you and you see that they've moved, give the police a call just to let them know.
The Potter County district attorney has tentatively accepted the charges from Friday's stabbing against Gober. The case may still go before a grand jury.