On December 7th, 2015, Raymond Gabriel Padilla, 38, of Sherman, pled guilty to a charge of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. The sentence, handed down by 397th District Court Judge Brian Gary, was the result of a plea agreement Padilla reached with the Grayson County District Attorney’s Office.
On February 19th, 2015, a woman called the Sherman Police Department and reported that her 12-year-old great niece had told the woman that Raymond Padilla, who was the child’s father, had been having sexual contact with her. Officers took the child to the hospital for a forensic examination and to the Grayson County Children’s Advocacy Center where she was interviewed. The child told the interviewer that Padilla had touched her on several occasions over the prior weeks. Detective Flores located Padilla and interviewed him. Padilla confessed to having sexual contact with the victim on several occasions beginning in November 2014.
“This kind of thing just breaks your heart,” said Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown. “Kids should not have to deal with these issues, but we know that it happens. The Sherman Police Department did a great job moving quickly on the report, and securing a confession.”
“The charge of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Child is a relatively new charge in Texas law, and covers situation where there is ongoing abuse on more than one occasion. One of the key features of the law is that a sentence in these cases does not allow for parole, so Mr. Padilla will do an actual 30 calendar years in prison.”
Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Wood prosecuted the case. Padilla was represented by Sherman attorney Rick Dunn.
