Jury Finds Mandeville Man Guilty Of Raping Young Child

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Jury Finds Mandeville Man Guilty Of Raping Young Child

March 6, 2025

District Attorney Collin Sims reports that on February 28, 2025, a St. Tammany Parish jury returned guilty verdicts against 43-year-old Damien Chance White of Mandeville after deliberating for approximately four hours.  White was convicted of first degree rape of a child under the age thirteen and two counts of sexual battery of a child under the age thirteen.  Assistant District Attorney Zachary Popovich with the Special Victims Unit and Assistant District Attorney Le’Anne Malnar presented the case to the jury with Judge Alan Black presiding over the 5-day trial.  Detective Katie Ragan with the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Office was the lead detective on the case.

According to trial testimony, in the fall of 2021, a pre-teen girl sent a note to her school guidance counselor concerning “inappropriate stuff at home” and how she felt unsafe going home.  When the counselor met with her, the child disclosed she had been sexually assaulted by her former stepfather.  The counselor immediately notified the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office which opened an investigation. 

Forensic interviewer Callie Huggins with the Children’s Advocacy Center’s Hope House in Covington interviewed the child to obtain additional information.  During her interview, the girl said Damien White, her former stepfather, entered her bedroom one night several months earlier and touched her inappropriately.  She went on to disclose that White repeated the same inappropriate touching on another night.  The girl reported that on a third occasion, White entered her bedroom and raped her.  She said White told her several times not to tell anyone.  The victim was taken to the CARE Center at Children’s Hospital in New Orleans for medical care.

During the trial, the victim testified and her recorded forensic interview was played for the jury.  Prosecutors also introduced evidence that while stationed in Norfolk, Virginia serving in the Navy, the defendant was caught having sex with a 14-year-old girl. After prosecutors completed the presentation of their evidence, the defendant testified.  He denied sexually assaulting the victim.  Prosecutors confronted him with a recorded phone conversation during which he pressured the victim in Virginia to keep quiet about his actions so he would not get in trouble. Prosecutors asserted the defendant did the same thing to the victim in the case presented to the jury, instructing her not to tell anyone, including her mom, which showed the lengths he was willing to go, then and now, to avoid any consequences for his crimes.

During his closing argument at the conclusion of the trial, defense counsel said the victim’s mother was behind the victim’s false accusations as payback for the defendant ending their relationship.  He accused the victim of rehearsing her testimony and said he hated having to call her a liar to her face but that’s what she was.  He gave prosecutors an “A” for their effort in trying a “dog case” but that an acquittal was the only just outcome.

In the state’s closing argument, ADA Zachary Popovich reminded the jurors how palpable the victim’s trauma was during her testimony and how, in contrast, the defendant often laughed while on the witness stand.  He argued it was ludicrous to think the young victim in this case could make up such a detailed accusation and dupe expert after expert.  He also pointed out how the defendant’s sexual exploitation of the young girl in Virginia demonstrated his lustful disposition toward children.  He said the victim in this case and her family have been living in trauma every day for the last four years.  He lamented the young victim has had to wait four years for someone to listen to her and she deserves justice now.

After the jury’s guilty verdicts, Judge Black remanded White to jail pending sentencing which he set for March 31, 2025.  First degree rape carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.  Sexual battery of a child under age thirteen carries a sentence of 25 to 99 years in prison.