A Lubbock District judge told a 39-year-old man earlier this month that the life sentence without parole a jury gave him will make the community, and especially young girls, safer.
Jesus Aguilar quietly stood before District Judge William Eichman who read the jury's verdict after they deliberated about an hour on Oct. 8 at the end of a four-day trial in the 364th District Court.
Aguilar, who had been held at the Lubbock County Detention Center since January 2024, faced between 25 years to life in prison without parole after the jury of eight women and four men returned to the 364th District Court the day before with a verdict finding him guilty on a count of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
His sentence stems from a trial that began Oct. 5,
during which prosecutors presented evidence that Aguilar sexually abused two girls more than once outside a 30-day period.
Investigating reported child abuse
The case initially began in 2022 when Aguilar was charged with a second-degree felony count of sexual assault on a child. That offense carries a punishment of two to 20 years in prison.
The charge stems from a Lubbock police investigation that began after CPS called police to report that a 15-year-old girl was pregnant with a 34-year-old man's child.
A forensic analyst told jurors that DNA test results showed Aguilar was the child's biological father.
The girl, now a 21-year-old woman, told a forensic interviewer at the time that she was in love with Aguilar and the two began a sexual relationship when she was 15.
Meanwhile, Aguilar spoke with police and admitted to the sexual relationship but said that he had permission from the girl's mother, who faces a second-degree felony count of sexual performance by a child as a result of the investigation.
The investigation resulted in Aguilar's initial arrest on Feb. 22, 2022, arrest.
Aguilar was released three months later after his bond was reduced from $100,000 to $75,000 with the condition that he could not have contact with children.
However, Aguilar moved in with a woman and her 10-year-old daughter.
During the trial, the second victim's school counselor told jurors that on Nov. 17, 2023, the girl came to her office and told her that Aguilar had been touching her inappropriately.
The girl would tell a forensic interviewer that about a month before she went to her counselor, Aguilar climbed into her bed and groped her chest.
She told the interviewer that Aguilar's abuse escalated, saying on three occasions, Aguilar touched her genitals while they were on a couch in the living room.
The girl said Aguilar would pull her back when she tried to get away from him.
She said she told Aguilar that she was "too young for this," but Aguilar told her that she wasn't.
She said decided to tell her school counselor about the abuse because Aguilar's actioners were escalating.
A sexual assault nurse examiner told jurors she found no injuries on the girl that corroborated that particular outcry nor did she document in her report that the girl said Aguilar penetrated her genitals.
However, she said it was common not to find injuries as the tissue in that part of the body heals quickly.
Meanwhile, jurors heard from the first girl, who revealed that she and Aguilar began their sexual relationship when she turned 13.
At one point, she said, Aguilar gave her a sexually transmitted disease - the same type the second girl's mother contracted from him.
Before deliberating in the guilt-innocence phase of the trial, jurors had the option of finding Aguilar guilty of one of three lesser counts: aggravated sexual assault of a child on the first girl and aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child by sexual contact on the second girl.
Texas law only allows jurors to pick one lesser-included count if they didn't find him guilty as charged of the main count of continuous sexual abuse of a child.
Defense attorney Matt Morrow told jurors in the guilt-innocence phase of the trial that the physical evidence showed they could only find Aguilar guilty of the lesser-included count of indecency with a child by sexual contact on the second girl.
He argued there was no physical evidence Aguilar began the sexual relationship with the first girl before she was 15.
Under Texas law, sexual assault of a child, which criminalizes sexual contact between an adult and a child between 14-17 years old, is not a lesser-included offense of continuous sexual abuse of a child, meaning jurors couldn't convict Aguilar of that charge if they believed he only had sexual contact with the first victim when she was 15.
However, Texas jurors can convict on the uncorroborated testimony of witnesses as long as they believe it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecutors told jurors the testimony they heard from the two victims shows Aguilar made a pattern of preying on vulnerable girls.
Prosecutor Riley King told jurors the testimony they heard from the first victim showed how Aguilar groomed the girl years before starting their sexual relationship.
"This relationship was well established early on," he said.
King told jurors the first girl's testimony admitting that she lied in her earlier interviews showed the extent of Aguilar's control over her.
Prosecutor Courtney Boyd told jurors the woman's testimony showed that Aguilar took advantage of the girl's insecurities to use her to satisfy his sexual desires.
"(The girl) didn't tell anyone sooner because this defendant warped this child's mind," she said. "He sold her, (an insecure 13 year-old girl struggling with body issues) a fairy tale. "
Boyd told jurors that jail messages between Aguilar and the first girl in which he showers her with affection, showed his desperate attempt to control her while incarcerated.
"She's the only one he needs to keep on his side," she said.
Meanwhile, Boyd said the absence of physical evidence in the second girl's case was common in the type of abuse in which Aguilar engaged.
"These cases stay in the dark until you have a child that says enough is enough," she said.
She said the details the girl gave in her testimony could have only come from experiencing Aguilar's abuse first-hand.
"This is not a lying child," she said. "This is a broken child who had to glue herself back together and face (her abuser)."
Finding Aguilar guilty, determining a sentence
Jurors deliberated close to an hour before returning with their verdict finding Aguilar guilty as charged.
During the punishment phase of the trial, Morrow asked jurors for the minimum sentence of 25 years without parole.
"That's a lifetime for some people," he said. "A lot can change. A lot of things can happen in 25 years. A lot of healing can be done in 25 years."
He told jurors the broad punishment range his client faced allows them to consider mitigating circumstances, such as Aguilar's relatively empty criminal history and honorable service in the Army during which he was deployed in Iran and Kuwait during the height of the U.S. global war on terror.
Meanwhile, prosecutors argued the evidence showed that girls will never be safe while Aguilar is out.
King told jurors the evidence showed Aguilar used "military precision" as he preyed on vulnerable girls being raised without a father figure.
"This defendant came into their lives and played the hero, the male figure they desperately needed," he said. "He was everything they were both missing. That's why he chose them. They were the perfect targets."
He argued Aguilar's military service was an aggravating factor, not a mitigating one.
Boyd told jurors the conditions of bond that directed Aguilar from being around children after his arrest the first time didn't deter him from finding another girl to abuse.
"He knew better," Boyd said. "He had honorable men teaching him you don't do that (to little girls). The only thing that man honored is his sexual desires."
Gabriel Monte is the criminal justice reporter for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal in Texas. Have a news tip for him? Email him at gmonte@lubbockonline.com.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Lubbock man sentenced for preying on girls with 'military precision'
