Austin Man Sentenced to 25 Years in Child Abuse Case

A Travis County jury sentenced 44-year-old Uriel Flores-Dehuma to 25 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice after convicting him of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, a case involving two victims. Jury selection began August 10, prosecutors started presenting evidence on August 11, jurors reached a guilty verdict on August 13, and the sentence was handed down the following day.

The Austin Police Department first arrested Flores-Dehuma in February 2021 and charged him with continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 involving two victims, according to KEYE. Austin Police Department Detective Gabriel Fernandez investigated the case, which fell under the department's Child Abuse Unit — the division that handles criminal investigations of sexual assault and abuse when the victim is 16 or younger at the time of the offense, per the City of Austin.

In April 2026, the Travis County District Attorney's Office reindicted Flores-Dehuma on additional charges, including one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, one count of indecency with a child by exposure, six counts of indecency with a child by contact, and one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14. The office reported his eventual conviction and sentence following the trial.

A Mandatory Sentence, Not a Jury's Choice

The 25-year sentence was not a judgment call by jurors weighing leniency — it is the absolute floor Texas law allows. Under Texas Penal Code § 21.02, continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 is a first-degree felony carrying a mandatory minimum of 25 years and a maximum of up to 99 years or life, according to the Dallas Justice Blog. Flores-Dehuma will also be ineligible for parole; under Texas Government Code § 508.145(a), anyone convicted of the offense must serve the entire term day-for-day, the same outlet notes.

The statute also shapes how such trials unfold. Under Texas Penal Code § 21.02(d), jurors must unanimously agree that two or more acts of sexual abuse occurred over a period of 30 days or more, but they are not required to reach unanimous agreement on the specific acts or dates involved, according to the John T. Floyd Law Firm. The law was created by the 80th Texas Legislature in 2007 through House Bill 8, part of Texas's version of Jessica's Law, passed nationwide after the 2005 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford in Florida.

Prosecutor Points to Victims' Healing

Following the conviction, Travis County District Attorney José Garza said his office was grateful to law enforcement partners for holding the defendant accountable, adding that he hoped the verdict would support the victims' healing process, according to KVUE. The district attorney's Child Abuse Unit is led by Division Director Efrain De La Fuente, who oversees prosecution teams handling child protection, CPS civil interventions, and child sexual abuse felony trials, per the office's leadership listings.

The office maintains a substantial infrastructure for these cases. As of 2026, it employs 22 specialized attorneys dedicated to child abuse and exploitation and embeds a prosecutor directly at the Center for Child Protection, KVUE reports. In 2025 alone, authorities in Travis County conducted over 5,000 child abuse and neglect investigations, while the district attorney's office oversaw 617 criminal child abuse cases and filed 342 civil intervention cases, the station's report notes.

A Second Identical Sentence the Same Week

Flores-Dehuma's case was not the only one of its kind to conclude that week. On August 14, the same day he was sentenced, a separate Travis County jury convicted 36-year-old Samuel Ramirez of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 involving two victims and sentenced him to the same 25 years, according to the Travis County District Attorney's Office. Both trials held jury selection on August 10 and reached verdicts on August 13, a parallel Hoodline detailed in its coverage of the Ramirez case. Both men will serve their sentences without any possibility of parole under the same statutory framework.