FILE - Prison cells. (Giles Clarke/Getty Images)
BEXAR COUNTY, Texas - A 71-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a Bexar County jury found him guilty of abusing multiple children, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office announced.
Joe Suarez Jr. sentenced
Joe Suarez Jr. was convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child and indecency with a child following a four-day trial. After four hours of deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict, prompting Judge Escalona to hand down the maximum punishment allowed by law: life without parole, plus two consecutive 20-year sentences.
What they're saying:
"My office worked tirelessly to put this child predator behind bars for life and secure justice for the victims of these heinous crimes," Paxton said in a statement. "We are committed to standing up for victims of sexual assault and will use every tool available to us to ensure that child predators are prosecuted to the fullest extent that the law allows."
The backstory:
The case dates back to March 2016, when an 8-year-old girl disclosed the abuse to a schoolteacher. Her outcry led two additional victims to come forward with similar allegations against Suarez.
The state's investigation revealed that Suarez, a local mariachi musician, offered music lessons to neighborhood children to build trust with families before abusing the victims in his home. Suarez also worked as a truck driver and used the cab of his 18-wheeler to commit the abuse, officials said.
While the San Antonio Police Department and the Department of Family and Protective Services initially investigated the claims in 2016, the case languished for several years awaiting a grand jury presentation. Following his election, Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzalez recused his office from the prosecution, bouncing the case to another district attorney's office before it was ultimately transferred to the Texas Attorney General’s Criminal Prosecutions Division in late 2023.
Sgt. Andres Alaniz, an investigator with the attorney general's office, launched a thorough reinvestigation of the decade-old case. In 2025, a Bexar County grand jury indicted Suarez on the charges.
During the trial, prosecutors called a range of experts to the stand, including a child abuse pediatrician, a sexual assault nurse, and forensic interviewers.
The state's key testimony came from the three victims themselves, who faced Suarez in court ten years after their initial reports. Now young adults, they testified about the chronic abuse they suffered as children.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant Attorneys General Ahrum Kim and Deanna Franzen.
The Source: Information in this article is from the Texas Attorney General's office.