Texas child abuser gets probation even as two more young victims come forward accusing him; light sentence sparks outrage
A man from Texas, convicted for molesting a four-year-old girl, has reportedly been sentenced to probation, sparking backlash and outrage in his community at the move. The lenient sentencing has also prompted two more young victims to come forward with allegations against him in the case.
The man, identified as Hector Gonzalez, avoided a prison sentence after reaching a deal with prosecutors in El Paso County. He reportedly pleaded guilty to one felony sexual assault charge and one misdemeanor unlawful sexual contact charge in exchange for having four other misdemeanor charges dropped, according to the Daily Mail. Gonzalez was arrested in 2018 after being accused of abusing the four-year-old girl from September 2017 to July 2018.
His sentencing of four years of probation has reportedly left the victim's family shocked. The girl's grandmother, Valerie Montoya, while speaking to KOAA, said: "I was in awe with the plea deal. Why should this man get to ride off into the sunset like he did nothing? People go to jail for far less than what this man did."
Reports state that Gonzalez's sentencing also led investigators of the outlet to uncover a second case where two other young women were reportedly assaulted by him when they were around the same age as the victim.
Montoya, the girl's primary caretaker, said Gonzalez and his wife, Susan, lived across the street from them and offered to babysit the child while she was working. Gonzalez, on multiple occasions, watched the victim overnight and on weekends while his wife was not in town.
The grandmother said that she suspected Gonzalez the first time after watching her granddaughter's reaction to him: "Hector grabbed my granddaughters hand and said: "C'mon you're going to stay with me today. My granddaughter had turned around and looked at me and had tears in her eyes. That plays in my head over and over because I didn't know if the tears in her eyes were because she was leaving grandma's house, or was it because she was going to go over there and something bad was going to happen?"
The child eventually opened up about the molestation to her grandmother, who took her to a local hospital for a sexual assault kit, according to reports.