Texan Sentenced to Prison for Starting Family With Minor in Mexico

DEL RIO, TX – A U.S. citizen who had been traveling to and from Mexico was sentenced Thursday in a federal court in Del Rio to nearly 16 years in prison for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.

According to court documents, David Manuel Garcia, 42, traveled from the U.S. to Mexico between July 2003 and August 2008, and engaged in sexual acts with a minor victim under the age of 18, which resulted in the birth of two children.

Records indicate that the victim was 13 years old at the time of the first birth, and 15 years old when she gave birth to the second child.

Garcia was arrested Dec. 11, 2018, at the Eagle Pass Port of Entry. A lengthy legal battle ensued afterward as the defendant claimed he had become a Mexican resident and that his actions weren’t criminal under the law of Coahuila, Mexico.

In documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, Garcia claimed he and the victim were a “legitimate familial unit” because the girl’s father consented to him and the 12-year-old girl to live together.

Chief U.S. District Judge Alia Moses found Garcia guilty in a bench trial on Aug. 26, 2022.