SAN ANTONIO – A man facing super aggravated sexual assault of a child charges was found guilty on all four counts against him by a San Antonio jury Thursday afternoon.
Prosecutors said that Isaac Cardenas, 24, inflicted injuries on the 21-month-old daughter of his girlfriend so serious that seasoned detectives found them difficult to view.
Recommended Videos
Cardenas testified that dogs in the backyard of his girlfriend’s mother’s home, where the child was injured, were responsible for her injuries.
"It has nothing to do with dogs," prosecutor Leo Gonzalez argued. "Dogs don’t have the capability, the willingness and these dogs didn't even have the temperament to do anything similar to that."
Cardenas' attorney, Denny Callahan, argued that absent the dog theory, others in the home, including the child’s mother and grandmother, were not considered as participants in the attack.
"The state’s case rests on an unproved bias," Callahan said. "An undemonstrated bias that a mother, a young mother, would not do that to her child, and there’s no evidence of that."
Though the attack occurred at the home of the child’s grandmother, she wasn’t charged.
Her daughter, the child’s mother, is free on bond charged with injury to a child by omission.
Cardenas' case will now go before a judge for sentencing. He faces 25 years to life in prison.