HOUSTON — More allegations of sexual abuse were heard from a daughter of Calvin Murphy this week, the second daughter to take the stand since his sexual assault trial began.
The courtroom was silent as the 23-year-old woman testified that the former Houston Rocket began molesting her when she was 10 years old.
She told jurors that she grew up in Connecticut, but was sent to Houston to live with Murphy after her stepfather died and her mother became ill from AIDS.
“If I was in his room, he would start off by touching me. Then it would go to him having oral sex,” the woman testified.
The daughter said she hated bedtime.
“(I) didn’t want to go to sleep. I knew he would come in,” she said.
Prosecutor Lance Long asked the daughter, “Have you and your half-sisters gotten together and said, ‘Hey, let’s say this happened?'”
“No,” she said.
The daughter testified that because of the abuse, she returned to Connecticut when she was 14 to live with her dying mother in a shelter. She told a middle school counselor that her father had molested her, but recanted during the police investigation.
The woman told jurors that Murphy and her sick mother pressured her into recanting.
The daughter said she never spoke of the abuse again until a Texas Ranger called her earlier this year. At first, she denied the allegations, she said, because she was living with Murphy. She later called the Texas Ranger back.
She ended her testimony in tears, saying she still loved her father.
On Monday, a 25-year-old daughter testified that Murphy sexually abused her beginning when she was 5 or 6 years old.
The allegations by his daughters stem from a dispute over money, said lawyers for Murphy, who faces three charges of indecency with a child and three charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
Murphy’s attorney, Andy Drumheller, said three of the five daughters had been trying to claim $52,408 in death benefits left in a Teacher Retirement System of Texas account belonging to their mother.
This year, the three daughters continued their grandmother’s earlier protests over Murphy’s receiving the benefits. He was listed as the account’s beneficiary, according to court records.
Murphy, 56, was a guard for the Houston Rockets from 1970 to 1983 and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1993. His daughters, now adults, allege the abuse occurred between 1988 and 1991.
Murphy was drafted in 1970 by the San Diego Rockets, who moved to Houston the following season. He quickly became a fan favorite. His 17,949 points were a franchise high until Hakeem Olajuwon passed him.
Known as the “Pocket Rocket” because of his small stature, Murphy missed just nine free throws — and made 78 straight in one stretch — in 1980-81 for a record single-season percentage of .958.
If convicted, he faces five years to life in prison for the aggravated offenses and two to 20 years for the indecency violations. His trial is expected to last at least two weeks.