A 39-year-old Honduras native who sexually abused a young family member in Robinson, Texas over a 30-month period was sentenced to 50 years in prison with no hope for parole Thursday.
Jurors in Waco’s 54th State District Court deliberated about an hour Thursday before convicting Jorge Carbajal of continuous sexual abuse of a child and indecency with a child by contact in numerous incidents of abuse beginning when the family member was 5.
Jurors recommended that Judge Susan Kelly sentence Carbajal to 50 years in prison on the first count, which precludes the possibility of parole, and 10 years and a $10,000 fine on the indecency count.
Carbajal, a painter, took the witness stand in his own defense Thursday morning and denied the allegations from the girl and her mother, who testified Wednesday. He claimed the girl’s mother manipulated her to make up the allegations because the mother’s relationship with Carbajal was ending.
Prosecutors Will Hix and Tara Avants urged the jury to give Carbajal a life term, telling the panel that is the sentence with which Carbajal saddled the young girl, who is now 10.
“If your decision is to hand down a verdict on the lower end of the range, you are handing that girl a clock,” Hix said in closing statements. “For the rest of her life, there will be an ever-growing shadow following her and her future family, waiting to see what happens to her when he gets out. That is what that means.
“Ladies and gentlemen, mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent. She will be watching that clock tick down… We are asking you to close this chapter for her and her family permanently,” he said.
The range of punishment for continuous sexual abuse of a child is from 25 years to 99 years up to life without parole.
After the trial, Hix praised the jury and law enforcement and child advocacy professionals involved in the case.
“The jury this week brought justice into the life of a young girl who has been waiting a long time for this chapter to end,” Hix said. “We can’t say enough about the professionals who did so much work on this case fighting for this survivor.”
Defense attorney Matthew Pallido, of Hurst, asked the jury for mercy and the minimum 25-year sentence.
“He is going to be labeled a sex offender for the rest of his life,” Pallido said. “He is a human. He has family and friends who care about him. Yes, I am asking for mercy.”
The girl testified Wednesday that Carbajal sexually abused her, physically abused her mother and took out his frustration for not getting his way by kicking and hitting her dog. She said he also threatened to take her away from her mother and flee to Honduras if she reported the abuse or tried to fight back.
Carbajal, who has been in the McLennan County Jail 1,122 days waiting for trial, was found guilty of sexually abusing the girl from July 2016 to January 2019 at a home in Robinson.
The girl told the jury that Carbajal would sexually abuse her while she sat on his lap. She also testified that Carbajal let his towel drop to the floor after showering and walked nude around the room while she played on the floor.
She said her mother did not force her to fabricate the accusations against Carbajal.
Carbajal denied that he ever hurt the girl.
“I am a Christian man and have the spirit of God inside of me,” he told the jury, testifying with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter.
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