On March 9th a Frio County jury convicted and sentenced Henry Gilbert Ayala, Jr. aka Paco Ayala to 20 years in prison for the offense of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child. The trial was moved from La Salle to Frio County after a La Salle jury was unable to be selected due to incredibly low juror turnout. Paco Ayala was found guilty of sexually assaulting a 13 year old child who lived in his home at the time of the offense. Ayala will have to serve a minimum of half his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
We are extremely proud of our victim, who courageously testified against the defendant, and because of her courage, no other child will suffer abuse from this defendant while he is incarcerated.
Thank you to Texas Ranger Lieutenant Randy Garcia, La Salle County Sheriff’s Office Lieutenant Homar Olivarez and Investigator Esmeralda Gonzalez, as well as Children’s Alliance of South Texas for all their continued hard work, and seeing the case through to the conviction of this defendant. Of course, we are grateful to our prosecutor First Assistant Leslie Carranza for fighting for justice for our victim.
