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Man sentenced to 43 years for continuous sexual abuse of young children Staff Reports On April 28, 2025, 400th District Court Judge Edward M. Krenek sentenced a Missouri City man to 43 years in prison, after his conviction for the offense of Continuous Sexual Abuse of Young Children in March, according to a news release. A Fort Bend County jury found Nathanael Williams Stewart, II , guilty for crimes that he committed from 2015-2017. Stewart will serve his sentence day for day without the possibility of parole, according to prosecutors. According to Assistant District Attorney Tristyl McInnis, lead prosecutor, Stewart sexually abused two young children with intellectual disabilities. Despite the children disclosing the abuse to family members, the children were dismissed and silenced, which allowed the abuse to continue. Eventually, the children disclosed the sexual abuse to someone outside of the family, who reported the abuse to authorities. An investigation was launched by the Houston Police Department, leading to Stewart’s arrest and prosecution. The Department of Family and Protective Services, commonly referred to as “CPS”, was also involved in the case. “The children bravely disclosed the abuse to multiple family members, but instead of protecting the children, they protected the defendant and concealed the abuse,” McInnis said. “Their actions allowed the abuse to continue. While nothing can undo the trauma these children endured, the verdict in this case takes a significant step toward justice and accountability.” “Many people worked tirelessly to support these children throughout the investigation and criminal prosecution that culminated in a jury trial,” District Attorney Brian Middleton said. “Our sincere thanks to the attorney ad litem for the children, the CASA volunteers and supervisors, and the forensic interviewers and the Criminal Court Advocates at Child Advocates of Fort Bend. All these compassionate and dedicated people helped bring justice to these children and to this community.” Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young Child/Children is a first-degree felony, punishable by 25 to 99 years, or life, in prison with no possibility of parole. The case was prosecuted by McInnis and Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Howard. Child Advocates of Fort Bend can be contacted at 281-344-5100 or through the website, www.cafb.org.
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Report: Most Fort Bend residents favor area’s diversity By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
For demographics nerds in the greater Houston region, the annual release of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research’s Houston Area Survey is akin to watching the Academy Awards. Begun in the early 1980s by Rice University Emeritus Professor Stephen Klineberg, the survey is reportedly one-of-a-kind in the country, an annual snapshot of how residents of a particular locality feel about their communities and their own prospects. For decades, the survey polled only residents of Harris County, but in the past few years, it has added Fort Bend County and Montgomery County – the second- and third-most populous counties in the region – to the mix. On Monday, the Kinder Institute
SEE DIVERSITY PAGE 4
According to the 2025 Houston Area Survey, most Fort Bend County respondents, like those across the region, support the area’s diversity. File photo
CHARANIA, WIERZBICKI SWORN IN AT FBISD BOARD With a friend and a cousin beside her, newly elected Fort Bend ISD Position 7 trustee Angie Wierzbicki is sworn in by Missouri City Council member Lynn Clouser.
With her son Aly beside her, newly elected Fort Bend ISD Position 3 trustee Afshi Charania is sworn in by her father, Barakat Charania on Monday. Photos by Ken Fountain
By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
A changing of the guard of sorts took place in the boardroom of the Fort Bend ISD Administration Building Monday evening at two newly elected, liberal-leaning board members were officially sworn in,
replacing two of the board’s most stalwart conservatives. In the May 3 election, Afshi Charania won the Position 3 seat, defeating one-term incumbent Rick Garcia in a three-person race, while in another three-person race Angie Wierzbicki won the Position 7 seat being vacated by David Hamilton,
Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Marc Smith thanks outgoing trustee Rick Garcia for his service, as outgoing trustee David Hamilton looks on at Monday’s board meeting.
perhaps the board’s most vocal conservative member who chose not to run again after serving one term. With two veteran liberal members – Position 1 trustee Angie Hanan and Position 4 trustee Shirley RoseGilliam 4 – already on the board, the two two new members taking their place at the dais marked what is like-
ly to be a shift in tone in a boardroom that has seen its share of culture-war battles in the past few years. In a before-meeting reception and in remarks behind the dais before
SEE FBISD BOARD PAGE 4
Another 16 FBISD students named National Merit Scholars Community Reports
Sixteen Fort Bend ISD students were named recipients of this year’s $2,500 National Merit Scholarships by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) earlier this month, bringing the district’s total number of 2025 National Merit Scholarship winners to 20 so far. Nathanael Williams Stewart, II, 31, of Missouri City, was sentenced to 43 years in prison for continuous sexual abuse of children. Courtesy Fort Bend County District Attorney’s Office
held its annual release event at the Hilton Americas-Houston in downtown Houston while simultaneously releasing the 2025 report online. This report’s findings are based on responses from the institute’s Greater Houston Community Panel, which now includes more than 10,000 members from Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties. The response rate among the nearly 3,500 Fort Bend County residents who joined the panel in fall 2024 was about 74 percent. “The findings show that most residents are proud to call Houston home and point to its diversity, immigrant population and economic opportunity as defining strengths. At the same
Winners include: • Steve Y. Wang, Dulles High School, Probable career field: Biomedical Engineering • Moksh P. Shah, Austin High School,Probable career field: Quantitative Analysis
• Nabiha Ahmed, Travis High School,Probable career field: Law (Intellectual Property) • Shaafae A. Chaudhary, Elkins High School, Probable career field: Neuroscience • Joshua E. Cheng, Dulles High School,Probable career field: Psychiatry • Krishna P. Chokshi, Austin High School,Probable career field: Biology • Emilie Efendy, Clements High School,Probable career field: Computer Science • Dezhou M. Gao, Austin High School,Probable career field: Aerospace Engineering
• Valerie Huang, Elkins High School,Probable career field: Information Systems Management • Joshua D. Le, Dulles High School,Probable career field: Biomedicine • Eric J. Li, Elkins High School,Probable career field: Computer Science • Katherine Y. Liu, Clements High School,Probable career field: Education (College Professor) • Anshul Mago, Clements High School,Probable career field: Computer Science • Ananya Pathak, Dulles High
School,Probable career field: Medicine • Sage Y. Wang, Clements High School,Probable career field: Applied Mathematics
SEE SCHOLARS PAGE 4