A 45-year-old man is facing a first-degree felony aggravated sexual assault charge after Bexar County Sheriff's deputies say he tied up a woman inside her Far Southeast Side apartment, held a gun to her head, and threatened to kill her family before she managed to get outside and call for help. Jorge Armando Mora was arrested the day after the alleged attack and now sits behind bars on a combined bail of $240,000.
According to the San Antonio Express-News, deputies responded to the apartment complex on the afternoon of Thursday, August 20, after a 911 caller reported finding a woman outside her unit, naked, calling for help, with her shorts around her ankles and cords still tied around her wrists and ankles. The caller helped her inside a neighboring apartment while she reached out to her family, the paper reports.
Investigators say the woman recognized Mora as a new neighbor who had recently moved into a nearby unit with his girlfriend, and that she had previously seen him walking his dog and remembered him as wearing glasses. She told deputies she did not know him well before the alleged attack, per the paper's account of the arrest affidavit.
Accusations of a Gun, Cords and Threats
Per the affidavit details reported by the outlet, Mora entered the woman's apartment, held a gun to her head, and told her to shut up before tying her wrists and ankles with black-and-white phone charger cords. He allegedly undressed her and threatened to hurt or kill her family if she resisted. The Express-News reports the assault lasted an extended period, and a forensic nurse later told deputies the woman had been choked during the attack, per the affidavit.
The woman said she lost consciousness at some point during the assault. Investigators later observed ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, according to the affidavit cited by the paper. Mora allegedly has a name tattooed on the back of his shoulder, a detail noted in the reporting on his description.
A Chase Through the Neighborhood
After the assault, the woman said, Mora climbed out of a bedroom window and ran. Deputies chased him but were unable to take him into custody that day, the Express-News reports, and he was arrested the following day. He now also faces charges of burglary of a habitation, unlawful restraint and evading arrest, in addition to the aggravated sexual assault count.
Court records cited by the paper show Mora has a prior record that includes a 2020 conviction for possession of a controlled substance, along with a 2017 misdemeanor evading arrest conviction and three misdemeanor trespassing convictions from that same year.
What the Charges Could Mean in Court
Under Texas Penal Code Section 22.021, aggravated sexual assault is a first-degree felony punishable by 5 to 99 years or life in state prison, along with fines up to $10,000 and mandatory lifetime sex offender registration, according to Texas Criminal Defense Group. The burglary of a habitation charge is likewise elevated to a first-degree felony carrying the same 5-to-99-years-or-life range, since entering a home without consent to commit a felony other than theft triggers that harsher penalty tier rather than standard residential theft penalties, per Varghese Summersett.
The unlawful restraint charge against Mora is a third-degree felony, punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison, because binding a victim with cords and choking satisfies the statutory requirement of exposing someone to a substantial risk of serious bodily injury, according to the Luster Law Firm. His evading arrest charge, since he fled on foot without a prior evasion conviction that would elevate it, is classified as a Class A misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in county jail and a $4,000 fine, per Varghese Summersett.
If convicted on the aggravated sexual assault charge, Mora would not be eligible for parole until serving at least half of his sentence or 30 calendar years, whichever is less, without credit for good-conduct time, under Texas Government Code Section 508.149, according to Taylor Ferguson, P.C.
Booking and Bail in Bexar County
Because Mora faces violent and sexual felony charges, he was required to be processed directly at the Bexar County Justice Intake and Assessment Annex on North Comal Street rather than through any of the county's satellite booking offices, which are reserved for minor warrants, according to Bexar County. Under Article 15.17 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, arrestees must appear before a magistrate judge at the county's Central Magistrate Division within 24 hours to receive formal charge notifications and a bail determination, per Forrest Good PLLC, a process that led to the magistrate setting Mora's combined bail at $240,000.
Posting that kind of bond requires financial authorization through the District Clerk's Central Magistrate Division or the Sheriff's Office, and cash bonds must be paid exclusively via cashier's check or money order rather than currency, per Bexar County's own bond information. Defendants facing six-figure bonds typically turn to licensed bail bondsmen to post a surety bond instead of paying the full amount outright.
Local Resources for Survivors
The case comes as San Antonio's Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence continues multi-agency work across Bexar County to address intimate partner and interpersonal violence, according to its 2024 annual statistical report released by the City of San Antonio. Nationally, 1 in 6 American women will experience an attempted or completed sexual assault in her lifetime, while as many as 77 percent of such assaults go unreported to law enforcement, according to data published by the Rape Crisis Center San Antonio, which operates a 24-hour crisis line at 210-349-7273 and works with the Bexar County Sexual Assault Response Team.
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