A Pflugerville man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after a Williamson County jury convicted him of indecency with a child. The victim, who lived in the same apartment as the defendant and her mother, testified that the abuse began when she was about 7 and continued through 2023. The court also ordered the defendant to register as a sex offender for life.
Case details
The case opened in October 2023, when the then-9-year-old told her mother that 41-year-old Daniel Rodriguez III had sexually abused her multiple times and told her to keep quiet. Prosecutors said Rodriguez acted as a father figure in the household and that the abuse occurred inside the north Austin apartment where the family lived. A Williamson County jury found Rodriguez guilty and imposed the 18-year prison term, along with the lifetime registration requirement, according to CBS Austin.
Legal context
Under Texas law, indecency with a child involving sexual contact is a second-degree felony, with a punishment range of two to 20 years in prison. The state’s sex-offender registration rules are laid out in Chapter 62 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and certain convictions or repeat reportable convictions can trigger lifetime registration instead of a limited-term requirement. The sentence in this case falls within the statutory range for a contact offense. Texas Penal Code §21.11 and Chapter 62 spell out those provisions.
Background
According to CBS Austin, Rodriguez and his then-wife were previously arrested in 2017 on allegations involving children, and both had been members of the volunteer group Bikers Against Child Abuse. The victim testified that the abuse in this case began in 2021, when she was about 7, and continued into 2023, and prosecutors relied on that testimony at trial. The case was prosecuted in Williamson County, where officials have released limited public comment beyond the verdict and sentence.
Local context
The conviction adds to a run of high-profile child-sex prosecutions in the Austin area in recent months and years, with juries and judges handing down lengthy prison terms in several cases. For instance, a separate Williamson County jury earlier this spring imposed a combined 130-year sentence in another child-sex case, which was detailed in coverage of an Austin predator who was buried under 130 years for attacks on a 13-year-old girl.
