Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A 59-year-old Del Rio man has been ordered to serve two 40-year sentences after he was found guilty of two counts of indecency with a child earlier this week.
Juan Manuel Casares Sr. was found guilty of both counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact for inappropriate fondling of two of his girlfriend’s daughters, ages nine and 15 when the incidents occurred.
A jury in state district court here found Casares guilty on Wednesday and recommended the two 40-year sentences on Thursday.
District Attorney Suzanne West spoke to the 830 Times about the trial and the sentence on Friday.
“First of all, I’m absolutely thrilled with the verdicts, because these cases are always really hard. It’s very hard when you have no physical evidence whatsoever. You literally have only the stories a kid tells about something that happened years before. Luckily, we had two good witnesses who told their stories well,” West said.
“I was really happy with the verdict, and here’s why. Texas state law, in many ways, strongly protects defendants’ rights. We often don’t think of it that way because we’re very law-and-order here, and we are, but Texas protects a lot of rights that have to do with confessions, search-and-seizure, so our laws are very defendant rights-oriented.
“However, we have that ‘third strike’ law that is fantastic. So if you’ve been to jail on two separate occasions previously, and you’re looking at the third (felony offense), you’re looking at a 25-year minimum, even if your offense starts out as a third-degree felony,” West said.
She explained that was the case with Casares.
“That’s why, on indecency with a child charges, what normally would be from a two-year minimum to a 20-year maximum, he was enhanced up to a 25-year minimum on each count, because he had been in prison two separate times before,” West said.
She said that is why she had brought Steve Moreno, a retired federal probation officer, to testify about Casares two previous convictions on felony federal charges.
“And these previous crimes, it wasn’t like (Casares) had done these previous crimes when he was young and didn’t know any better. They were fairly recent, so it was like, he got out of prison and then five years later, there was a new offense. I think that really resonated with the jury, that he has no intention of being a safe person who can be out on the streets, and I think that’s what their verdict was about, of this is not a person we want out in the community,” West said.
“And to me, that is the best tool that we have with state law, is that, we want to have your confessions fairly taken, we want evidence to be properly obtained, but if you’ve been to prison twice, and you’re still committing felonies, you’re looking at a really high punishment range,” the district attorney added.
“The other thing I hope our community knows, and I feel like I say this a lot when it comes to these cases, is that it’s not me that protected those little girls. It’s not the police department or the sheriff’s office. It wasn’t even their mom, until she knew, because she didn’t know at first. It was those little girls. They totally had to protect themselves, and until one of them decided to face the repercussions of telling her story, nothing was going to ever protect them,” West said.
“There’s really no good way to convey how impressed I am with these kids. These kids were 9, 12 and 15. The middle child, we also know that things happened to her, but from the beginning, she said yes, but she didn’t want to talk about it. She wants to have nothing to do with it, and I understand that,” West added.
“I find it so impressive that these girls fought their way out of the situation they were living in and for us to take him off the streets, again, that’s them, fighting again. They don’t have the same rights. They don’t have rights about their statements not being used against them and all those things. It’s up to these little children to get on the stand and fight this grown man, this two-time felon, and they did it. They did it bravely, and they did a fantastic job,” West said.
West explained Casares was sentenced to 40 years on each count of the indictment.
“That’s because it was two separate victims. In Texas child sex law, even if it’s in the same indictment, the (sentences) can be stacked on top of each other, which is another thing that’s only applicable in child sex cases. If it had been two burglaries that happened, they would be running concurrent. These sentences are consecutive (one right after the other), and the judge did that at the end,” West said.
West also praised the partnerships her office has with local law enforcement.
“In our community, especially, all these law enforcement agencies work together to bring these things out, and it was really fantastic, again. This was a Del Rio Police Department case. Michelle Salinas, who is now one of my investigators, worked the case initially. The officers at the police department still continued to work it after she left to bring it through to court, and the sheriff’s office helps us with people when they’re getting arrested. The federal agencies, we had a retired federal probation officer who came from out of town to literally testify for three minutes, to say, yes, those are his two judgments and that’s the guy,” West said.
“We could not make these cases work if we didn’t have the cooperation of all these different law enforcement agencies who come together when it’s time, and we really appreciate the cooperation that everybody gives us,” the district attorney added.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com .
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