Austin Man Draws 60-Year Sentence For Girls' Sexual Abuse

AUSTIN, TX — An Austin man was sentenced this week to six decades behind bars for continuous sexual abuse of two sisters that began when they were just 7 years old, the district attorney's office said.

Eleazar Davila Huerta, 27, was handed down the lengthy sentence in a case of abuse that began with the two victims were 7 years old and 11 and 9 years old when the abuse finally stopped, according to the Travis County District Attorney's office. Huerta was the boyfriend of the girls’ mother, the DA's office said, and the abuse occurred in several different locations over a period of years.

The children eventually told their biological father about the abuse and described numerous acts of sexual assault with disturbing details, the DA said. They also disclosed that the defendant had threatened them with violence against their siblings and mother if they ever told or did not do what he wanted sexually, prosecutors added.

After his arrest, Huerta began contacting the victims’ mother on jail calls, using other inmate’s accounts in an effort to conceal the calls. During these conversations, the defendant continuously told the girls’ mother not to show up for court and not to bring the victims to testify at his trial, the district attorney said in a press advisory. Huerta also directed the mother not to return any calls from the police or the District Attorney’s Office and not to bring the victims to a medical exam.

As a result of the intimidation, according to the DA's office, the mother did not show up and did not bring the victims to court despite being served with a subpoena. Still, the prosecutors proceeded to trial without the victims and introduced prior statements and interviews of the victims taken at the Center for Child Protection, which detailed the abuse. Prosecutors were able to introduce the statements without having the victims in court under a legal theory known as Forfeiture by Wrongdoing in which a defendant forfeits his right to confront and cross-examine witnesses if he does or says something that prevents their presence in court.

Despite his success in intimidating the mother from testifying, the defendant was found guilty by the jury of the charge of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young Child for both victims, and Judge Cliff Brown sentenced him to 60 years' imprisonment to run concurrently. The law requires the sentence to be served day for day with no eligibility for parole, the DA noted.

Assistant District Attorney Amber Platt praised the jury for the verdict: “Hearing the details of the abuse in this case was incredibly difficult on its own. Then we asked this jury to reach a verdict on very serious charges without the ability to see the victims in person. We are grateful for each of those jurors for standing up for these children and for hearing their voices even when they were silenced by the defendant.”