Appellant was charged with raping and forcibly sodomizing his 16-year-old stepdaughter, CT, on divers occasions between November 1, 1998 and February 10, 1999, in violation of Articles 120 and 125, Uniform Code of Military Justice [hereinafter UCMJ], 10 U.S.C. §§ 920 and 925 (2000), respectively; and committing an indecent assault on CT between February 11, 1999 and March 18, 1999, in violation of Article 134, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 934 (2000). A military judge sitting as a general court-martial convicted Appellant, contrary to his pleas, of the indecent assault and the lesser-included offenses of attempted rape and attempted forcible sodomy, in violation of Article 80, UCMJ, 10 U.S.C. § 880 (2000). The adjudged and approved sentence provides for a dishonorable discharge, confinement for six years, total forfeitures, and reduction to the lowest enlisted grade. The Court of Criminal Appeals summarily affirmed the findings and sentence.
The victim, CT, was diagnosed as having leukemia in 1994. She died on November 27, 1999, some four months after Appellant’s trial.
CT spent significant periods of time in the hospital, and she underwent bone marrow treatment in the summer of 1998. After being released from the hospital, she was "very debilitated," but gradually became stronger. She suffered a relapse and was again hospitalized on February 12, 1999. Dr. Linda Shaffer, one of CT’s doctors, believed that there was no hope for CT’s recovery.
On the night of March 17-18, 1999, CT began experiencing "excruciating pain" in her abdomen. At about 4:00 a.m. on March 18, Dr. Shaffer was summoned to the hospital. CT asked Dr. Shaffer if she was dying, and Dr. Shaffer replied in the affirmative. At the time, CT had a fever of 103.4 degrees. CT asked to see her mother. Dr. Shaffer contacted the family and asked them to come to the hospital.
During a private conversation with her mother during the early morning of March 18, CT admitted that she and her aunt had molested her brother. CT was crying and talking and then fell asleep. CT’s mother called her brother into the room. CT awoke and told her brother, "I did something bad to you," and they cried.
After her brother left the room, CT told her mother that Appellant had kissed her and touched her breasts. CT told her mother that Appellant would come into her room at night and would "put his ‘private’ against her ‘private’ and rub." While CT was talking, she "was falling asleep during a lot of it and not finishing her sentences." CT told her mother that Appellant got in bed with her in the hospital and "was rubbing on her." CT told her mother that she did not tell her about Appellant’s acts because she was afraid that her mother would not love her.
CT’s mother became angry and told Dr. Shaffer that she was going to kill the Appellant. Dr. Shaffer reported the threat to her supervisor, Dr. Reginald Moore, who also was one of CT’s doctors.
Later that same day, Ms. Brenda Fenner, an "investigative worker" for the state of Texas, interviewed CT, accompanied by Dr. Moore, Criminal Investigative Command (CID) Special Agent (SA) Hawthorne, and CT’s mother. The interview was videotaped by SA Hawthorne.
During this interview, CT told Ms. Fenner that shortly after her 16th birthday on November 7, 1998, Appellant began
[various acts of physical sexual abuse] sexually assaulting her.
Appellant was interviewed by agents of the CID on March 18 and 19. He provided a sworn written statement in which he admitted that he had kissed and fondled CT, and rubbed his penis against her. He denied any sexual penetration.
After being convicted in Texas, Wellington was released on July 21, 2003 then moved to Summerville, South Carolina and North Charleston, South Carolina. By August 4, 2004 Wellington had been discovered working as a nurse in South Carolina having not disclosed he was a convicted military sex offender. He was forced to relinguish his nursging license. On December 14, 2004 Texas followed suit and revoked his nursing license.
He then moved to Florida, where he is a registered sex offender as of December 12, 2010.