Former pastor found guilty of indecency

During trial, 3 teenage boys testified they were molested

Rodolfo Sosa could get 20 years each on some counts

By Steven Kreytak

Austin American-Statesman

October 31, 2008

A Travis County jury on Thursday found a former South Austin pastor and apartment complex handyman guilty of multiple felony counts related to sexually molesting three boys in 2005 and 2006.

Rodolfo Sosa, 50, was convicted on all counts against him — five counts of indecency with a child by contact and one of indecency with a child by exposure. He faces up to 20 years on each indecency by contact charge and up to 10 years on the remaining charge. Senior state District Judge Jon Wisser will sentence Sosa on Nov. 21.

Sosa was taken into custody by sheriff's deputies after the verdicts were read.

Sosa "is a predator and he preyed on the weak," prosecutor Joe Frederick said during closing arguments.

Prosecutor Rob Drummond told the jury: "Not one, not two, but three (now) teenage boys came into this courtroom, sat on that witness stand and described to you how this man, Rodolfo Sosa, molested them."

When Sosa was arrested in 2006, he was pastor of the Ciudad del Refugio Church, which rented a portable building from Westoak Woods Baptist Church at 2900 W. Slaughter Lane. He was also a maintenance worker at the AMLI at Lantana Ridge Apartments on West William Cannon Drive near U.S. 290 West in Southwest Austin.

The church has dissolved, and Sosa no longer works for the apartment complex, according to defense lawyer Aaron Mueller.

Lawyers said that two of the boys testified this week that they knew Sosa from church. They said Sosa repeatedly touched them and exposed himself to them at places including a vacant apartment in the complex where Sosa worked, lawyers said. One said that Sosa performed oral sex on him.

The other boy testified that he lived at the Lantana Ridge Apartments and that Sosa touched him improperly while at his apartment to fix the water heater. The boy's father was at work at the time.

During his closing arguments, defense lawyer Jon Evans urged the jury to pick out inconsistencies in the testimony. For example, he noted that the father of one boy testified that his son told him that Sosa unsuccessfully attempted to touch his penis, Evans noted. The teen, Evans said, testified that Sosa did touch him. Evans also faulted police for not attempting to locate a semen stain on the floor of the apartment.

skreytak@statesman.com; 912-2946

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