Man arrested, charged in rape of 14-year-old girl nearly 3 years after incident

SAN ANTONIO – Police have made an arrest nearly three years after a 14-year-old girl was raped at an apartment complex behind a San Antonio theater.

Franky Rene Esparza, 26, is charged with sexual assault of a child.

Investigators said the victim's family was seeing a movie at a theater back in June of 2015, but that she didn't want to join so she stayed in the lobby of the theater. 

There, police said Esparza approached the girl "for small talk" but the girl "wanted no part of it, so she walked away and ended up at a bench at the apartment complex behind the theater."

Police said Esparza followed her to the bench and began touching her private areas. The girl attempted to get away, but police said Esparza chased after her and raped her. 

Police were able to identify Esparza as a suspect in the case after DNA collected from the victim's rape kit matched Esparza.

The detective investigating the case said he reached out to Esparza to discuss the allegations against him and Esparza told the detective he would give him a call, but never did.

Police expected to serve Esparza with a warrant at a meeting with his probation office, but never showed. 

Online court records show he was indicted by a grand jury on Oct. 16, 2017. He was arrested on Jan. 17.


About the Authors:

Max Massey is the GMSA weekend anchor and a general assignments reporter. Max has been live at some of the biggest national stories out of Texas in recent years, including the Sutherland Springs shooting, Hurricane Harvey and the manhunt for the Austin bomber. Outside of work, Max follows politics and sports, especially Penn State, his alma mater.