By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com

PALO PINTO – A former pastor was found guilty Tuesday afternoon and sentenced to 20 years confinement for inappropriately touching a 14-year-old member of his congregation.

Eric Correa Jimenez, 52, was indicted in February 2007 and arrested on two counts of indecency with a child by sexual contact, a second-degree felony charge. This week’s trial was pertaining to an offense in July 2006.

According to testimony presented by the juvenile and her parents, Jimenez volunteered to tutor the teenage girl and help her with “emotional problems.” Jimenez was the family’s pastor at Primera Iglesia de Bautista, according to the family’s testimonies.

Through the use of a court-appointed interpreter, the Spanish-speaking mother told jurors Jimenez approached them about their daughter.

“He said to my husband and I he was going to help us because [she] had these emotional conflicts,” the visibly upset mother said. She explained the tutoring sessions – which focused on schoolwork and spiritual things – began around April 2006.

“From that day, he was coming to our house three to four times a week and sometimes every day,” she said. The mother also told jurors Jimenez asked her and her husband to leave the room so he could speak with their daughter.

The daughter took the stand Tuesday afternoon and testified that Jimenez first touched her inappropriately during a tutoring session.

“He was supposed to tutor me and teach me about the classes everyone else was taking [in church],” she said. “He was tutoring me on how to be a better daughter, also with school work and helping me being sad and quiet.”

She testified she started to trust him more as the tutoring session continued. In July, she said their relationship changed and “he started to touch my hand, my leg. He said ‘I love you.’ … At first, I thought it was like my Dad tells me ‘I love you’ or my Mom. He saw me as his daughter.”

The teenager said Jimenez reached under her shirt and touched her breast. “I was in shock. I didn’t know what to do. I trusted him,” she said.

During the course of her testimony and cross-examination, the young woman said she loved Jimenez but after a confrontation involving her father and Jimenez, “it was like a light came on. It was like everything had been dark and that I saw everything was wrong.”

All three members of the family testified to an occurrence on Christmas Day 2006 when Jimenez was seen kissing the juvenile at the kitchen table. Her father summarily threw him from the home, according to the witnesses.

District Attorney Michael Burns told the Index Wednesday after the sentencing he was pleased with the jury’s verdict and punishment. The jury – comprised of eight women and four men – took less than 30 minutes to determine guilt and less than 30 minutes for the sentencing phase, he estimated.

“The evidence in this case was very strong. There was little question of his guilt,” Burns said.

Jimenez was sentenced to 20 years of confinement, the maximum punishment allowed for the crime. He was not assessed a fine by the jurors. According to Burns, “he’ll be eligible for parole in 10 years.”

The jury’s punishment sends a strong message about those who would perpetrate crimes against children, the district attorney said. “Our office will vigorously prosecute those offenders …”

Wednesday’s sentencing is for one of two counts of indecency with a child that Jimenez faced in Palo Pinto County. Officials reported that he also faces a charge of aggravated sexual assault in Parker County.

When asked about the second charge pending in Palo Pinto County, Burns said, “We’re awaiting the outcome on that case [in Parker County]. We’re not through with this defendant yet.”

Jimenez’ court-appointed attorney, Jim Ashby, declined to comment.