Federal Jury Convicts Monahans Man of Three Counts After He Sexually Abused a Child for Over Five Years

ALPINE, Texas - A federal jury in Pecos convicted a Monahans man for two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child under 12 and one count of committing a sexual offense while being required to register as a sex offender, announced U.S. Attorney Justin R. Simmons for the Western District of Texas.

According to court documents and evidence presented at trial, Michael Scott Nichols, 55, groomed and sexually abused a minor female from around the age of six years old until she was 11 years old. On Sept. 23, 2024, the Ward County Sheriff's Department responded to a home in Monahans, where a woman reported that her daughter had been molested by Nichols.

Nichols is a registered sex offender due to convictions for sexual assault of a child in 1995 and in 1997. He was sentenced to 15 years in a Texas State Prison for the 1997 offense.

During this investigation, it was discovered that Nichols, who owned a trucking company, had abused the minor victim in the Western District of Texas and also transported her across state lines and further abused the victim in other states.

Nichols was arrested on April 15, 2025. A third superseding indictment filed in August 2026 charged him with two counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a child and one count of penalties for registered sex offenders. A federal jury found Nichols guilty on all three counts on Wednesday, concluding a three-day trial held before U.S. District Judge David Counts.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and the Ward County Sheriff's Department investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kevin Cayton and Heather Haywood are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.

###