A 52-year-old New Braunfels man will spend the next 23 years in prison after a Comal County jury found him guilty of choking and stomping a woman who confronted him over an accusation that he tried to sexually assault her daughter. Marcos Gallegos was sentenced on aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and assault family violence by impeding breath or circulation, closing out a case that began with a frantic 911 call and ended with a jury holding him accountable for one of the more violent domestic assaults Comal County has prosecuted this year.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, Gallegos attacked the woman after she confronted him over allegations that he had tried to sexually assault her daughter. Comal County officials said they received the 911 call from the woman alleging the attempted child sexual assault, and New Braunfels Police Department officers who responded connected that allegation directly to an ongoing domestic violence assault against the child's mother, per a Comal County Criminal District Attorney's Office statement shared on Facebook. During the attack, Gallegos threw the woman to the floor, stomped on her chest, and choked her, creating what prosecutors described as a risk of fatal consequences.
Medical Monitor Caught the Attack in Real Time
The violence documented at trial went well beyond the bare bones of the charges. Evidence showed Gallegos kicked the victim in the face with his boot and choked her by the throat for nearly a minute, leaving visible neck injuries consistent with strangulation, according to the same Comal County Criminal District Attorney's Office account. Prosecutors say Gallegos knew the woman had a heart monitoring device at the time of the assault.
That detail became a striking piece of corroborating evidence. While officers were still interviewing the victim after the attack, she began receiving direct phone calls from her doctor after her medical heart monitoring service detected real-time alerts triggered by the assault, prosecutor records indicate. The technology effectively documented the physiological toll of the beating as it was happening, giving investigators an additional layer of proof beyond witness accounts.
A Prior Conviction Involving a Child
Court records cited by the Express-News show Gallegos was previously convicted of two counts of indecency with a child through sexual conduct. That prior offense falls under Texas Penal Code § 21.11, a second-degree felony carrying a statutory range of two to 20 years in state prison, according to the Whalen Law Office. The Comal County Criminal District Attorney's Office commended the woman and her daughter for their bravery, and the Express-News reports both shared their story and testified, playing a vital role in securing justice and holding Gallegos accountable.
Visiting Judge Hands Down Sentence
Visiting Judge Edna Salinas formally sentenced Gallegos on June 29, ordering 15 years for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and eight years for assault family violence by impeding breath or circulation, per the Comal County Criminal District Attorney's Office Facebook post. Under Texas Penal Code § 22.02, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon is a second-degree felony carrying a potential sentence of two to 20 years and a fine of up to $10,000, as explained by Rollings Wood & Pace. Separately, Texas Penal Code § 22.01(b)(2)(B) elevates a standard misdemeanor assault to a third-degree felony, punishable by two to 10 years, when a defendant intentionally impedes a family or household member's breathing or blood circulation, according to Mercer Law.
Because the case included an affirmative deadly weapon finding, Gallegos will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least half of his 15-year sentence, without credit for good conduct time, under Texas Government Code § 508.145(d), according to the Texas District & County Attorneys Association. That provision means Gallegos faces a lengthy stretch of mandatory prison time regardless of standard parole timelines that apply to lesser offenses.
Part of a Wider Pattern in Comal County
Gallegos's 23-year combined sentence adds to a string of heavy prison terms Comal County courts have imposed on violent domestic offenders this year. Hoodline previously reported a 25-year sentence for Felix Villareal Castilleja Jr. in July, and a separate case ended with a 40-year term for Jason Aaron Vancleave in May for family violence and assault offenses. Together, the cases point to a local judicial pattern of stiff sentencing outcomes for domestic and family violence crimes in the county.
Victims of domestic assault and violent crime in Comal County can access support through the Criminal District Attorney's Office Victim Services program, which offers crisis counseling, protective order assistance, court accompaniment, and access to state victim compensation funds, as detailed in Hoodline's earlier coverage of a related New Braunfels sentencing case.
