{"id":332369,"date":"2026-06-11T16:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/332369\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T16:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T16:25:07","slug":"texas-attorney-general-secures-life-sentence-against-convicted-child-predator-in-bexar-co","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/332369\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Attorney General secures life sentence against convicted child predator in Bexar Co."},"content":{"rendered":"

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says that his office has secured a life sentence against a 71-year-old man found guilty of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child in Bexar County.<\/p>\n

A jury found Joe Suarez Jr. guilty after four days of testimony and four hours of deliberation.<\/p>\n

The case began in March 2016, when an 8-year-old girl made an outcry of sexual abuse to a teacher at her school. Two additional victims came forward, saying they were victims of “chronic abuse” by the offender, Joe Suarez Jr. <\/p>\n

San Antonio police conducted an investigation and referred the case to the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office, where it awaited grand jury presentation for several years. The case was referred to another district attorney’s office in Texas before being transferred to the Office of the Attorney General in 2023.<\/p>\n

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A reinvestigation into the case revealed evidence showing that Suarez, who played in a local mariachi group, offered mariachi lessons to children in the community to gain their trust, the Attorney General’s Office saying he sexually abused multiple children in his home. He also worked as a truck driver and would abuse children in the cab of his 18-wheeler.<\/p>\n

The jury heard testimony from child abuse specialists and experts, a detective with the San Antonio Police Department, family members of the victims, and other witnesses. The three victims, almost a decade after their initial outcries, also testified at the trial.<\/p>\n

The jury found Suarez guilty of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child and Indecency with a Child. Following a sentencing hearing, the court ordered a life sentence without parole and two consecutive 20-year sentences.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEXAR COUNTY, Texas \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says that his office has secured a life sentence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-332369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}