BEXAR COUNTY, Texas – A Bexar County jury convicted and sentenced a 71-year-old man to life in prison without the possibility of parole on multiple child sex charges.
According to court records, jurors found Joe Suarez, Jr. guilty on May 26 of continuous sexual abuse of a child (first-degree felony) and two counts of indecency with a child (second-degree felony). Judge Kristina Escalona, who presides over Bexar County’s 186th Criminal District Court, sentenced Suarez later that day.
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The first-degree felony carries a life in prison sentence while the two second-degree felony charges are worth 20 years and will be served concurrently.
In a statement released Thursday, a Texas Attorney General’s Office spokesperson said its prosecutors took the case on in 2023 after the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office recused itself.
A Bexar County DA’s Office spokesperson told KSAT Thursday that the office filed a motion for recusal because Suarez “had previously been a client of (Bexar County) DA (Joe) Gonzales when he was in private practice.”
“This step was taken to ensure that both the impartiality and integrity of the case were maintained throughout the legal process,” the Bexar County DA’s Office spokesperson said.
Jurors listened to four days of testimony and deliberated for approximately four hours before they landed on their guilty verdict, the AG’s office said.
How charges were filed
In March 2016, according to Paxton’s office, an 8-year-old told a teacher at an unnamed school that Suarez sexually abused them. Two other children also came forward with allegations of continuous sexual abuse by Suarez.
Investigators said Suarez, who played in a Bexar County-area mariachi group, “offered mariachi lessons to children in the community to gain their trust.” Suarez, who was a truck driver, also abused children in his 18-wheeler and his home, the AG’s office said.
In 2025, with the help of SAPD detectives, charges were presented to a Bexar County grand jury following the completion of the Texas Attorney General’s Office’s investigation, according to a news release.
“My office worked tirelessly to put this child predator behind bars for life and secure justice for the victims of these heinous crimes,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement. “We are committed to standing up for victims of sexual assault and will use every tool available to us to ensure that child predators are prosecuted to the fullest extent that the law allows.”
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