Jesse Daniel Skaggs, 32, shown in a booking photo, is a Texas registered nurse. Acquaintances say he worked at Brooke Army Medical Center and Northeast Baptist Hospital in San Antonio.
Bexar County jail
A registered nurse and former church volunteer from Universal City confessed to his wife that he sexually assaulted their baby son as well as two unconscious hospital patients, according to court records.
Authorities learned of the alleged assaults on Monday evening, when a woman called Universal City police to report that her husband, Jesse Daniel Skaggs, 32, had admitted to having sexual contact with their son when the child was about six months old, according to an arrest affidavit. The boy is now 2.
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Officers went to the woman’s house Monday evening, and she told officers that during a phone conversation with her at about 2 a.m. that morning, Skaggs confessed that he had placed the infant’s hands on his erect penis, a detective wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Police took Skaggs into custody that night, and under questioning, he admitted to the act, the affidavit states. It says the assault occurred in January 2025.
A Bexar County magistrate signed a warrant for Skaggs’ arrest early Tuesday morning on a charge of indecent sexual contact with a child, a second-degree felony. He was booked into the Bexar County jail, where he remained on Wednesday. His bail is set at $125,000.
Skaggs did not respond to a phone message seeking comment.
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‘Unconscious patients’
According to the arrest affidavit, Skaggs’ wife told police that in her phone conversation with him, he also admitted to “sexually assaulting two unconscious patients while he was working as a registered nurse in a hospital setting.”
The affidavit did not identify the hospital or say whether police are looking into the claim. The Universal City Police Department did not respond to a request for comment. Skaggs does not currently face criminal charges in connection with the allegation.
He became a licensed practical nurse in 2016 and a registered nurse in 2020, according to Texas Board of Nursing records. Both licenses were reissued in May and are valid through May 31, 2028.
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People acquainted with Skaggs told the San Antonio Express-News that he worked at Brooke Army Medical Center and Northeast Baptist Hospital. Efforts to obtain comment from the two hospitals were unsuccessful. The Texas Board of Nursing also did not respond to a request for comment.
Sarah Richards, 41, of Northeast San Antonio, said Skaggs was one of the nurses in the intensive care unit at Northeast Baptist when she spent a week there about three years ago being treated for complications of diabetes.
Richards said Skaggs came into her room and repeatedly offered to help her change out of her clothes, despite her insistence that she wanted to wait for her husband. She said she told another nurse that she did not want to have any further contact with him.
“I just did not want him to be taking care of me,” Richards said in an interview. “I did not want my life in his hands.”
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Nevertheless, when Richards was discharged from the hospital, Skaggs was the one assigned to wheel her to her husband’s car, she recalled. She said Skaggs rubbed her shoulders as he guided the wheelchair. She said it made her uncomfortable.
Richards said that before Skaggs dropped her off with her husband, he told her his last name and said she could look him up online.
Jesse Daniel Skaggs, 32, served in the Army and worked as a nurse at Brooke Army Medical Center (above), according to the pastor of a church to which he once belonged.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
Police interview
University City police made two visits to the home of Skaggs’ wife on Monday evening. After her first discussion with officers, she called them again after 10 p.m. to report that Skaggs had called her and told her he wanted to turn himself in, court records show.
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Officers brought Skaggs to the Universal City Police Department, where he agreed to be interviewed.
“During this interview, the defendant stated that he wished to confess to deviant sexual crimes that he has committed,” Det. Cpl. Kabir Bhakta wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Bhakta wrote that he had informed Skaggs of his right to remain silent and to be represented by an attorney, and that Skaggs “still wished to speak with me.”
Skaggs detailed the instance of sexual contact with his son, the detective wrote. Skaggs said he and the infant were asleep in a rocking chair when the baby woke up and began crawling and kicking, courts records show. Skaggs said he had “an intrusive thought” and pulled down his shorts, exposing his erect penis and guiding the child’s hand to it. He said he was “curious to see if it would be good or arousing,” the detective wrote.
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Skaggs’ wife told police that she and her husband were “in the process of separating.”
‘Just evil’
Pastor Landon Kyker of The Purpose Church in Marion told the Express-News that Skaggs was a church volunteer who taught children’s classes, greeted attendees and helped set up and take down equipment for services. Skaggs was part of the Christian congregation for five to six years and left two and a half years ago, Kyker said.
Kyker said he never received complaints about Skaggs’ conduct at the church and was stunned to learn of his arrest.
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He said Skaggs served in the Army and had been a nurse at BAMC.
“Our hearts are broken for these families,” Kyker said. “Humans do dumb things all the time. This isn’t dumb, this is just evil.”