A Beaumont man already labeled a sex offender for life will remain behind bars after Texas's Ninth Court of Appeals rejected every argument he raised against his 28-year prison sentence. David Allen Tovar, 44, was convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child, a crime prosecutors say he committed against a girl starting when she was just 8 years old.
Appeals Court Shuts Down All Three Claims
The Ninth Court of Appeals, based in Beaumont, upheld Tovar's conviction and sentence on Wednesday, according to 12News Now. Judges rejected all three arguments Tovar raised on appeal, leaving the Jefferson County jury's 2025 verdict and punishment fully intact. Prosecutors had accused Tovar of abusing the girl from 2015 to 2021, beginning when she was 8, per the same outlet's reporting.
A Jefferson County jury found Tovar guilty in 2025, and he is now serving a 28-year prison sentence for continuous sexual abuse of a child. A separate report from KFDM detailed that a jury in Judge John Stevens' court decided on the 28-year term after convicting Tovar, who was identified as 43 at the time of that September 2025 sentencing; the 2026 appellate coverage lists his age as 44. KFDM also reported that Tovar must serve the sentence day-for-day, meaning he will be 71 years old before he is released from the Texas prison system.
Prior Conviction Loomed Over the Trial
Tovar's defense attorney, Marcus Wilkerson, argued that jurors should never have learned about his client's earlier conviction, fearing it would taint their judgment. Wilkerson contended the earlier conviction could improperly lead jurors to find Tovar guilty simply because he was already a known sex offender. As the attorney put it, in this case, that conviction “only makes the jury say: oh, he's a sex offender; so, of course, he did this.”
That earlier case dates back to 2002, when Tovar was convicted in Hood County of sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl and sentenced to eight years in prison, according to the 12News Now report. The Examiner separately confirmed that Tovar was previously convicted of sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl in 2002. Texas law allows jurors in child sex abuse trials to hear about a defendant's past sex crimes against children, and the trial judge instructed jurors on how they could and could not use that information.
The Ninth Court of Appeals found that the earlier victim was close in age to the girl in this case during some of the abuse, a detail that factored into the court's reasoning for allowing the testimony. The defense had claimed the girl was lying, and the case against Tovar had no eyewitnesses or physical evidence, according to the appellate record described by 12News Now.
Nurse's Report and Cross-Examination Requests Denied
Beyond the prior-conviction argument, Tovar's appeal also challenged two evidentiary rulings from his trial. The court rejected his claim that he should have been allowed to show jurors a blacked-out portion of a nurse's examination report, and it separately rejected his claim that he should have been permitted to question the girl about her past sexual history.
In its ruling, the Ninth Court of Appeals said the excluded details involved other people and events from years earlier and did not explain the charges against Tovar. The court also corrected a paperwork error that had listed Tovar as his own lawyer instead of Wilkerson.
No Parole Eligibility, Limited Path Forward
Because Tovar was convicted of continuous sexual abuse of a child, Texas law makes him ineligible for parole, meaning the 28-year term stands as his full sentence barring a successful further appeal. He remains in state prison and is listed as a sex offender for life in Texas.
Tovar now has 30 days to seek review by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest court for criminal cases, with that window closing around November 20. Whether he will pursue that final avenue of review has not been reported.
