WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — A man was given the maximum possible sentence after pleading guilty to three felony charges against him for raping and molesting a teenage boy in 2021.
On Friday morning, October 6, 2023, in the 78th District Court, Eladio Martinez, 49, of Iowa Park, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact, all of which are second-degree felony offenses.
Presiding Judge Meredith Kennedy sentenced Martinez to 20 years behind bars in a Texas Department of Corrections facility on each of the three charges, the maximum possible sentence for a second-degree felony offense.
Martinez, who has been behind bars since his June 2022 arrest, was given 484 days of credit for time served. Judge Kennedy ruled that the three sentences will run concurrently.
Martinez was indicted by a Wichita County grand jury on the three charges in September 2021.
According to the arrest affidavit, in October 2021, a male teenager younger than 17 confided in a friend regarding Martinez “touching him in inappropriate places and raping him.” The teen said it would only happen when Martinez was drunk.
Authorities said the teen’s friend told his parents, who then contacted the police. When officers made contact with the victim, he told them that he had been raped.
The affidavit said during a forensic interview conducted on October 25, 2021, the victim said Martinez had told him that if he told anyone, he would be killed. The victim said he would try to forget the assaults by “playing video games to escape reality”.
Police said several attempts were made to contact Martinez, but they were unsuccessful. On June 6, 2022, police were notified that Martinez was at his residence, but once officers arrived, he was no longer there. The same day, Martinez arrived at the Iowa Park Police Department.
According to the affidavit, Martinez admitted to raping the victim on two different occasions.
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