A Collin County jury has sentenced a repeat child sex offender to life in prison for a 1991 cold case in Plano.
Nicholas Carney, a 65-year-old from Ardmore, Oklahoma, is facing life in prison after being convicted for kidnapping and sexually assaulting an eight-year-old Plano girl in 1991, the Collin County District Attorney’s Office announced January 21. Investigators tied him to a similar Dallas case in 1999 and child sex crimes in Oklahoma in 1980.
“My office is here to protect children and remove dangerous predators from our communities,” said Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis in a press release. “We will pursue these offenders as long as it takes so families can live in peace, and children can grow up safe.”
The Crimes
When an eight-year-old girl was walking with a friend to a community pool in Plano on August 15, 1991, she went missing for hours. The child had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted, and dropped off 20 miles from her home.
After finding the girl, detectives and medics collected DNA evidence. Meanwhile, her friend helped Plano Police Detective Larry Wilson build a composite sketch of the suspect.
“Despite extensive efforts by multiple law-enforcement agencies, no suspect was identified at the time and the case went cold,” the release reads.
Almost 8 years later, a similar crime occurred in Dallas when a nine-year-old child was walking home from school with a friend on March 25, 1999, and the child went missing.
“That child was sexually assaulted over several hours before being released approximately 40 miles away,” the release reads.
Investigators took similar measures to the first case, collecting DNA evidence. The child’s friend helped ATF Agent Sharon Whittaker build a composite sketch of the suspect, but the case was never solved.
New Leads
Investigators submitted DNA evidence to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Science in Dallas, according to the release. In 2004, the lab developed a DNA profile of the suspect and entered it into a database, which did not identify the perpetrator but linked him to the sex assault in Dallas.
Plano Police Detective Aaron Benzick, Dallas Police Detective Elizabeth DeAngelis, and Texas Ranger Jason Shea reopened these cases in 2023 and submitted the DNA evidence for forensic genetic analysis.
“Investigators learned that Nicholas Carney lived in the Dallas area at the time of both offenses, drove vehicles consistent with the descriptions provided by the victims, and possessed driver’s license photographs consistent with the composite sketches,” the release reads.
They worked with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation to get a DNA sample from Carney. Ultimately, testing confirmed this matched the perpetrator from the 1991 Plano case and the 1999 Dallas case.
“Carney was arrested and charged with multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child,” the release reads.
After more investigation, officials found that while Carney was working as an ice cream truck driver in Tulsa in 1980, he was convicted of exposing himself to a six-year-old child and trying to lure the child into his vehicle.
The Trial
Carney faced four charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child and one count of aggravated sexual assault, according to Collin County Jail records.
Judge Richard Davis oversaw the trial, according to the release. A Collin County jury found Carney guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced him to life, and a $34 fine, one dollar for every year the crime went unsolved.
Assistant District Attorneys Ashleigh Woodall and Ann Mathew prosecuted the case. District Attorney Investigator Laurie Gibbs and Victim Assistance Coordinator Valerie Miller also helped.