Six years probation for child grooming

BULLARD – A Bullard man arrested for child grooming in 2024 has been sentenced to serve six years on probation. According to our news partner KETK, Randy Lloyd Smith, 48 of Bullard, was arrested by the Bullard Police Department on Aug. 28, 2024 after officers helped the Smith County Sheriff’s Office find a runaway at his home in Bullard on July 25 of that year, according to Smith’s arrest affidavit.

The arrest document described how officers found four minors at the home, including the runaway. The runaway minor was interviewed by law enforcement and said that, after they left their parent’s home, an unnamed person had picked them up to go to Smith’s house. An investigator interviewed another one of the minors found at Smith’s home. That minor said Smith was touching one of the other minors inappropriately and that he had bought them all alcohol, vapes and a sex toy.

Smith was arrested for enticing a child, harboring a runaway, two counts of grooming, tampering with a witness and six counts of purchasing alcohol for a minor.

On Sept. 29, 2025, 114th District Court Judge Austin Reeve Jackson gave Smith a sentence of six years probation and 600 hours of community service for his two counts of child grooming. He was officially released from the Smith County Jail on the same day.

Smith was given deferred adjudication on the two counts of child grooming which means that he’ll avoid an official guilty verdict if he can complete his probation. The Smith County District Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the other charges Smith was facing.