William Hayden, the former star of Sons of Guns, has been indicted by a Louisiana parish grand jury on charges of child rape. He allegedly raped two preteen girls, one recently and another over two decades ago.
According to The Advocate, an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury indicted him on two counts of aggravated rape. He is also facing a charge of aggravated rape in Livingston Parish.
The East Baton Rouge case involves the alleged rape of a young girl, beginning after her 11th birthday in March 2013 through August of that year. He was also accused of raping her on a separate occasion on Aug. 4, 2014. That incident lead to an arrest and, just days later, the cancellation of his Discovery Channel show.
Following that arrest, a woman came forward to claim that she was molested by Hayden in the 1990s when she was 12. She is now in her 30s and says she never came forward until now because she didn’t think her family would believe her. Hayden was charged with forcible rape in that case.
In Livingston Parish, a grand jury indicted him on charges of rape after his daughter, Stephanie Hayden Ford, told Dr. Phil about an incident 20 years ago, in which her father tried to take her clothes off one night.
As NOLA.com noted, Hayden was the founder of Red Jacket Firearms, which was the focus of Sons of Guns.
If he is convicted of aggravated rape, he faces a life sentence.