UPDATED STORY:
Thirty-three-year-old Juan Velasquez will serve 20 years in prison for doing nothing to stop the abuse of his daughter.
Our 25 News crew was the only station in the courtroom during the sentencing as the now 15-year-old girl took the stand.
Before she took the stand, Velasquez asked to hug his daughter — but she declined. During her testimony, she told her father she felt like his slave. And told him she did not think she would be alive if she were still living with him.
Velazquez was convicted of injury to a child by omission and injury to a child causing bodily injury.
The girl's stepmother, Marisela Garcia, was sentenced in January to life in prison on first- and second-degree charges of injury to a child.
The teen testified that her father was well aware of the abuse and torture she endured from her stepmother, saying, “You chose her, and you didn’t choose me”.
Prosecutors showed evidence in her trial showing the girl was forced to live outside in a shed and had to watch her family eat meals inside without her.
ORIGINAL STORY: Juan Velazquez was sentenced Friday, the 28th, 2025, to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to Injury to a Child by Omission.
Velazquez was convicted for failing to protect his daughter from severe abuse by his wife, Marisela Garcia, the child’s stepmother.
In January 2025, McLennan County prosecutors successfully tried Garcia, who was found guilty of physically and psychologically abusing her stepdaughter over several years. While the abuse did not result in serious bodily injury, prosecutors demonstrated that it caused significant mental harm, leading to a first-degree felony charge, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Garcia's abuse involved withholding food from the child, forcing her to sleep outside in harsh or cold conditions, torturing her with pushpins, and repeatedly encouraging the child to take her own life.
Velazquez, who had a legal duty as the child’s father, was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 20 years for failing to do so. He also pled guilty to a separate charge of Injury to a Child for an incident in which he struck his daughter, resulting in an additional 10-year sentence.4o mini
The child is now living with a new family and is reportedly thriving.
The McLennan County Sheriff’s Office, Child Protective Services, China Spring ISD Police, and the McLennan County District Attorney’s Office investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Will Hix and Jessica Washington.
