Texas Man Sentenced to 70 Years for Spitting at Police Officers

36-year-old Texas man Larry Pearson has been sentenced to 70 years in prison for allegedly spitting at Lubbock police officers, KLBK/KAMC reports.

Pearson was arrested in May 2022 when a person flagged down an officer for alleged domestic violence. The victim informed the officers that Pearson hit her multiple times and that he had a firearm. Prosecutor Jessica Gorman said the gun later turned out to be an airsoft gun, and the victim had “multiple visible injuries” at the time of the incident. Pearson was taken into custody. At one point, he started to kick the doors inside the police vehicle, and when he was told to stop he spat at both of them. When he arrived at the Lubbock County Detention Center, he allegedly kept spitting at officers.

At the sentencing this week, Pearson was found guilty of two counts of harassment of a public servant. Gorman asked the jury to “send a message” to Pearson with his sentencing, noting that he had previous convictions of continuous family violence and aggravated robbery. On account of those convictions, he was facing a minimum sentence of 25 years. Instead, he was sentenced to 70 years. “If you’re going to live the life of crime, you’re going to do that among other criminals [in prison],” said Gorman. "You’re not going to get 70 years for something like this when you’ve never been in trouble before."

Pearson’s defense attorney Jim Shaw argued that his client was involved in a “simple misdemeanor,” and that the situation simply got “out of control.”