WACO, Texas (KWTX) – A deadlocked jury forced a mistrial Thursday in the trial of a West man charged with sexually abusing a family member for more than six years.
Jurors in 474th State District Court told Visiting Judge Rex Davis three times they were at a stalemate in their deliberations while trying to decide the fate of 46-year-old Kenneth Austin Galvez.
Galvez’s trial began Monday. He was charged with continuous sexual assault of a young child and four counts of indecency with a child by contact.
Kenneth Galvez(Photo Credit: Tommy Witherspoon for KWTX)
After about four hours of deliberations, the jury told Davis that it was deadlocked 7-5 in favor of acquittal and no one was willing at that point to change their mind. Davis instructed jurors to continue deliberations, which they did for about another hour before again sending a note to the judge saying they were at a hopeless impasse.
Davis declared the mistrial after a final note from the jury 90 minutes later.
Williamson County prosecutors Ryan Bownds and James Murphy and defense attorney Darren Obenoskey all declined comment after the mistrial was declared because of the pending nature of the charges.
Bownds declined comment when asked if his office will again try Galvez, who remains free on bond after he was indicted in the case in December 2020. The Williamson County District Attorney’s Office agreed to handle the case after McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens recused his office because Tetens represented Galvez before Tetens took office.
Attorneys in the case gave final jury summations Thursday morning before the jury began deliberating about 10:20 a.m.
Galvez’s family member, who is now 23 and married with a toddler, testified Tuesday that Galvez sexually abused her for at least six years at Galvez’s home on Wiggins Road in West beginning when she was 7 years old.
Galvez, a 20-year Tractor Supply Co. employee, testified Wednesday he never touched the girl inappropriately and declined to speculate what motivated her to concoct the serious allegations.
His wife, the girl’s mother, also testified Wednesday. She said she initially supported her daughter and kicked Galvez out of their home. However, she grew to doubt the allegations and told the jury she thinks her daughter made up the abuse accusations in retaliation for her and Galvez taking away her phone and because she was able to go live wih her older sister.
Galvez and his wife seized the girl’s phone in 2020 after they caught her sending inappropriate photos to a man she met online. They returned the phone to her after a time, but took it back again when the girl continued to send increasingly more graphic photos to the online stranger.
Her mother arranged for her to see a therapist because of her behavior and to try to set her on a path to success. The girl, who testified she initially planned to take the abuse trauma with her to her grave, revealed what she said Galvez did to her as a child to the therapist.
That launched investigations by Child Protective Services and the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office.
Obenoskey told jurors in summations that the woman’s abuse allegations belied her actions. He reminded the jury that the girl asked Galvez to adopt her after she convinced her biological father to relinquish his parental rights in 2019 and also asked him to baptize her a few months later.
Obenoskey showed jurors a picture of Galvez and the girl hugging after he participated in her baptism.
“Look at that embrace,” Obenoskey said. “That is real… All he can do is deny the allegations. Never and always are the two hardest things to prove in my line of work.”
Bownds countered by telling the jury it would be nice to know if someone is a monster by how they look.
“But you can’t,” he said. “You have convinced everyone you are a great guy, a loving husband and father, until your victim has the strength to come forward and tell what you did.”
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