Lubbock man who sexually abused young girl 25 times gets life sentence
A Lubbock jury spent a little more than 15 minutes in deliberation before returning Wednesday with a life sentence for a man who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl 25 times in six months.
Jose Antonio Gonzalez, 35, stood with his attorneys - Charles Blevins and Matthew Johnson - in the 140th District Court as District Judge Douglas Freitag read the out the verdict.
An hour earlier, the jury of seven men and five women deliberated for about 20 minutes before finding him guilty of a first-degree felony count of continuous sexual assault of a child younger than 12, which carries a punishment of 25 years to life in prison without parole.
His punishment follows a three-day trial that began Monday when Gonzalez, who has been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since March 13, 2025, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The next day, prosecutors presented their case against Gonzalez that was built around his confession to police.
Investigating a report of child abuse in Lubbock
His charge stems from a Lubbock police investigation that began on March 10, 2025 after a woman called police to report that Gonzalez had been raping her 12-year-old daughter for months.
The girl's mother told jurors that she learned Gonzalez had given a sex toy to her daughter, who eventually confessed to having a sexual relationship with him for months. She said Gonzalez would abuse her while she was out of town.
The girl also described Gonzalez's genitals, according to court documents.
Meanwhile, Gonzalez went to the Lubbock police headquarters in the late hours of March 11 and confessed to raping the girl 25 times between September 2024 and February 2025.
Prosecutors played Gonzalez's interview with detectives during which he said he told the girl not to tell anyone about the abuse.
I know I ------ up and if it gets out there my life's ruined," he said.
Throughout the interview Gonzalez called his actions a mistake.
He was arrested March 13, 2025 and has since remained in custody.
Trial in Lubbock County court
During the trial, jurors never heard from the girl, which is rare in cases of child sex abuse.
However, prosecutor Cassie Graham said after the trial that the police detectives who investigated the case were able to draw out enough details from Gonzalez's confession, which made it unnecessary to call the girl to the witness stand.
"We're very thankful for the detectives at the Lubbock Police Department that worked on this case and were able to obtain that evidence for us," she said. "Typically, we do always put victims of child abuse on the stand. We don't like to do it, it's not fun for them, and so in this case, with the confession we were able to corroborate that through other evidence so it was not necessary for her to be called as a witness."
Jurors also heard from a sexual assault nurse examiner and a forensic interviewer who spoke with the girl and obtained her statements about the abuse.
Gonzalez's trial was specially set about four months after he rejected at the last minute his intent to accept a plea offer from the Lubbock County District Attorney's Office.
He appeared Nov. 20, 2025 for a plea hearing, however, at the last minute, Blevins informed the court that his client changed his mind and was rejecting the offer and wanted to go to trial.
Meanwhile, prosecutors withdrew their offer, exposing Gonzalez to the full range of punishment.
Jurors heard from Gonzalez during the punishment phase of the trial, telling them he was remorseful.
He described his actions as selfish and a "terrible mistake."
"It's not normal what I did," he said. "Only a sick person would do something like that. I wasn't thinking about the repercussions. I knew it was wrong. It was just the affection I was receiving. It was just stupid."
He told jurors that he didn't expect their mercy but was still asking for it.
Meanwhile, under cross examination by Graham, he told jurors that he hadn't been affectionate with the girl, whom he had known since she was 3 years old, until a few months before he began sexually abusing her, after he noticed her becoming sexually curious.
He acknowledged that he took advantage of the girl's vulnerabilities, which included being sexually abused years before by a relative.
In his closing argument in the punishment phase of the trial, Blevins asked the jury to temper their punishment with mercy and sentence his client to 40 years in prison.
However, prosecutor Hannah Beetler, asked jurors to show Gonzalez the same mercy he showed the girl he sexually abused 25 times in six months, only stopping when the girl eventually made her outcry.
"He knew he should have stopped the first time but there was 24 more times," she said.
She said the abuse left the girl suffering from a number of mental health disorders including anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress.
A life sentence was the only appropriate punishment in the case, she said.
Man receives 75 years for continuous sex abuse of child
SAN MARCOS — Hays County Criminal District Attorney Kelly Higgins announced that 50-year-old Jaime Espericueta of Liberty Hill was sentenced to 75 years in prison Feb. 23.
Espericueta elected to have his punishment determined by the judge instead of a jury.
After the jury found Espericueta guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child, the punishment hearing occurred Feb. 23, 2026. At this hearing, a third victim testified that Espericueta had also abused her when she was a child. State prosecutors presented additional evidence of the traumatic effects of sexual abuse.
After hearing the evidence, Judge Alicia Key of the 483rd District Court of Hays County sentenced Espericueta to 75 years in prison. Under the law applicable to the case, the defendant is not eligible for parole.
This case was prosecuted by assistant criminal district attorneys Elizabeth Schmidt and Miranda Ebersole.
“This was a case where the defendant spent years hiding his crimes of sexual abuse, often hiding behind his own family members for protection. The bravery of the survivors in this case to speak out about the abuse and stand up to the defendant in court was inspiring. This case is a warning to other abusers that even though years go by, we will still hold them accountable for the abuse they inflict on children,” said Ebersole.
The Brief
A Collin County judge sentenced 65-year-old Donald Joachim to life in prison without parole for sexually abusing a child in Celina and other Texas cities.- Joachim sexually abused the victim from the time they were a toddler through their early teens, having known the victim through a relationship with the child's family.
- Multiple other children told investigators that Joachim had sexually abused them by growing close to their families in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
COLLIN COUNTY, Texas - A Collin County judge sentenced a man to life in prison without parole after a jury found him guilty of child sexual abuse in Celina.
What we know:
65-year-old Donald Joachim of Rosenberg, Texas, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty of continuous sexual abuse of a child. The crime occurred in Celina from 2017 to 2020.
According to a press release on the case, Joachim had access to the child victim through a relationship with the family. He started sexually abusing the victim when the child was a toddler, and continued until the child was 13-years old.
When the victim was 14-years old, she reported the abuse to her sister-in-law, who then reported it to authorities in Comal County. Investigators discovered the abuse also occurred in Canyon Lake and Austin, where the child and their family previously lived.
Joachim later confessed to several family members of the victim that he had abused the child.
Further investigation into Joachim revealed he abused multiple children in the late 1990s and early 2000s, using his relationship with the children's families to groom the children for abuse.
What they're saying:
"For too long, this predator exploited trust within families to abuse multiple children across years and locations. Today’s life-without-parole sentence sends a clear message that Collin County will relentlessly pursue justice and safeguard our children," Greg Willis, the Collin County District Attorney, said after sentencing.
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