HOUSTON – A Wharton man is now sentenced to 25 years in prison after sexually exploiting a child he was babysitting in 2019, the Texas Attorney General’s Office announced Friday.
Artemio Rodriguez, Jr., pleaded guilty to one count of indecency with a child by contact and pleaded “true” to a prior robbery conviction, which enhanced the offense to a first-degree felony, according to a news release.
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Prosecutors said Rodriguez, who was 43 years old at the time, was babysitting a friend’s 6-year-old daughter while she went to work. During that time, he sexually abused the child and told her to not tell her mother, the office said in its news release. But soon after, the child told her friend’s mother about the incident, who reported it.
According to prosecutors, Rodriguez entered a guilty plea in exchange to the agreed prison sentence and a waiver of his right to a jury trial. By avoiding a jury trial, the child was spared from having to testify in detail about the crime that occurred over three years ago, the office noted.