Date: 10-18-2024

Case Style:

The State of Texas v. Christian Lozano

Case Number: DC-23-904023

Judge: Brandy Mueller

Court: 403rd District Court, Travis County, Texas

Plaintiff's Attorney: Travis County Texas District Attorney's Office

Defendant's Attorney:

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Description:

Austin, Texas indeceny with a child by sexual contact and sexual assault of a child.

In 2014 or 2015, when she was fourteen years old, A.L. decided to move out of Mother's home due to Mother's substance-abuse issues. A.L. moved into a home with her father, Lozano; his wife (Stepmother); and their two children. A.L. did not have her own room at this house, and she slept on a couch in the living room. In November 2015, the family moved to a new home, which had enough bedrooms for all the children and a guestroom on the first floor that was separated from the other bedrooms in the house. At the new house, Lozano kept musical equipment and some of his other belongings in the garage where he spent a great deal of his time. The garage also had a futon.

In 2021, when A.L. was twenty-one years old, A.L. abruptly moved out of the home and back in with Mother. Shortly after moving back, A.L. told Mother that Lozano had sexually abused her. Mother drove A.L. to the police station, and A.L. informed the police that Lozano had been sexually abusing her for years. The police arranged for A.L. to be examined by a sexual-assault nurse examiner ("SANE").

Additionally, A.L. forwarded to the police email exchanges between Lozano and her, and she allowed the police to search her phone. Further, the police obtained a search warrant for Lozano's phone. While searching the phones, the police discovered email and text exchanges between Lozano and A.L. and discovered internet searches performed by Lozano in August 2021, after A.L. moved out.

Around the same time that A.L. began talking with the police, Stepmother cleaned A.L.'s room and found a journal belonging to A.L. in which A.L. wrote about sexual activity involving Lozano and her. After finding the journal and reading its contents, Stepmother moved out of the house with her two children. Stepmother then called the police to report what she found in the journal and told Lozano that she had moved out of the house because of what she found in the journal. Lozano denied any wrongdoing in a series of text messages from August 2021 and instead told Stepmother that A.L. had been fantasizing about being in a relationship with him, that she had sent him sexually themed emails that he had not asked for or responded to, that A.L. was lying about them having a sexual relationship, and that he found bizarre writings by A.L. in her bedroom that he burned. In those text exchanges, Lozano attached emails that A.L. had sent to Lozano. When Lozano finished sending the text messages, Stepmother forwarded to the police the text exchanges and attachments and gave the police the journal she found.

Following the police investigation, Lozano was arrested and charged with indecency with a child and sexual assault of a child. During the trial and before A.L. testified, two law-enforcement officers testified regarding their investigation, and the SANE testified that A.L. told the SANE that Lozano began sexually abusing her when she was fifteen years old and that the abuse progressed to oral, vaginal, and anal penetration.

In her testimony, A.L. mentioned her birthdate and explained that she began living with Lozano when she was fourteen years old and that Lozano began sexually abusing her shortly after she moved in. Regarding one incident at the first house where she lived with Lozano, A.L. recalled that she fell asleep in the primary bedroom while Stepmother was at work, that she woke up to feeling Lozano's right hand rubbing her vagina on the outside of her underwear, that she noticed that he was masturbating with his other hand, that she froze at first, that she later rolled over and went to the living room, and that Lozano followed her and yelled at her for leaving. A.L. explained that similar incidents occurred when they lived at the first house where she did not have a bedroom, that the first incident occurred when she was fourteen years old, and that they moved to the second house when she was a sophomore in high school. A.L. admitted that she had difficulty recalling the details of the incidents but stated that she had a stronger recollection of what happened at the second house.

Regarding the second house, A.L. testified that incidents occurred in the garage, her bedroom, the guest bedroom, and the primary bedroom. In particular, she explained that after they smoked marijuana, Lozano "would make me give him oral" until he ejaculated in her mouth; that Lozano would get angry if she did not agree to perform oral sex; that Lozano sometimes used physical force; and that she performed oral sex on Lozano many times throughout her "entire high school career" in the garage, her room, the guest room, and the primary bedroom. A.L. mentioned how Lozano stopped engaging in sexual conduct with her in the primary bedroom because Stepmother came home early once and almost caught them. Next, A.L. testified that Lozano inserted his penis into her vagina in the garage, in the guest room, and in her room and would ejaculate on her back. A.L. clarified that Lozano penetrated her mouth and her vagina with his penis while she was a sophomore, junior, and senior and after she graduated and that she was fourteen years old for most of her freshman year, fifteen years old for most of her sophomore year, and sixteen years old for most of her junior year. A.L. mentioned that she told Lozano to stop many times and that Lozano told her that she must have liked what he was doing because she did not run away. Concerning one incident in the guest room, A.L. testified that she told Lozano to
stop inserting his penis into her vagina because it hurt, that Lozano did not stop, that she pulled away to stop the penetration, and that Lozano began yelling at her. When discussing why she did not leave sooner, A.L. explained that Lozano made her feel as though she had nowhere else to go.

In her testimony, A.L. explained that when Lozano would text her to meet in the garage, that was code for his wanting oral and vaginal sex. Further, she related that if she did not respond to the text messages, he would come to her bedroom and penetrate her there. Additionally, she revealed that she would send Lozano pictures of herself in the hopes that the pictures would be enough to satisfy him without his demanding sex. Further, A.L. related that she wrote in journals while living with Lozano and that Stepmother found one of her journals. Regarding what led to her moving out, A.L. stated that she did not respond to Lozano's directive to meet him in the garage, so he yelled at her and took her cellphone and laptop. Further, A.L. recalled that after finding where Lozano stashed her phone and computer, she packed up more of her belongings and went to Mother's house when Lozano was distracted and never went back to Lozano's house.

A.L. testified that the first person she talked to about the abuse was her friend in 2019 but that she asked her friend not to say anything. A.L. told her then boyfriend about the abuse in 2021 and told Mother after she moved out of Lozano's home, but A.L. stated that she did not go into detail with Mother. Next, A.L. admitted that she had the passcode to Lozano's phone, but she denied accessing his email or making messages pretending to be Lozano.

In her cross-examination, A.L. admitted that she had previously lived with Lozano when she was younger and that no abuse occurred during that time. Further, she agreed that Lozano and she would make music and play instruments while in the garage, that Lozano would ask her to go to the garage to retrieve tools, that she wrote a goodbye note on the day she moved out of Lozano's home, and that she did not mention the abuse in that letter. Further, she admitted
that she would use Lozano's phone occasionally to play a song or log into her social media accounts and that she knew Lozano's passcode; however, she explained that she would not use the phone for long because she had her own phone and denied sending content from Lozano's phone to her phone.

In her testimony, A.L. agreed that emails, text messages, and images collected by the police were from exchanges between Lozano and her and revealed that she forwarded many of the messages to the police. During her testimony, the trial court admitted multiple sets of exhibits, and Lozano objected to many of them. The first was exhibit 29, an email exchange between Lozano and A.L. when she was younger than seventeen in which she sent photos of herself in a swimsuit outside. Exhibits 30 and 33 to 50 were emails over a four-year period between Lozano and A.L. after she turned seventeen in which A.L. sent photos of herself naked or in a swimsuit or in lingerie to which Lozano responded, including one response where Lozano sent a photo of either his penis or another adult man's penis.

The next group of exhibits admitted into evidence were exhibits 56 to 62. The first five exhibits were screen shots of the email history between Lozano and A.L. from April 2016 to July 2020. A.L. was younger than seventeen for some of those exchanges. The next two exhibits were an email exchange between Lozano and A.L. from April 2017 in which she sent a photo of herself in a bathing suit and in which Lozano asked for additional photos.

Additionally, the trial court admitted exhibits 70 to 120, which were text messages between A.L. and Lozano from July 2020 to May 2021, which was after A.L. turned seventeen but before she moved out. The next set of exhibits admitted were exhibits 51 to 55 and 121. Exhibits 51 to 55 were emails sent by Lozano to A.L. after she turned seventeen and shortly after she moved out. Exhibit 121 contained numerous text messages sent by Lozano to A.L. after she moved out in which he initially apologized for how he treated her but later threatened her.

After A.L. testified, one of the investigating officers testified and described obtaining a search warrant to take a photo of Lozano's pubic region after A.L. mentioned seeing a mole in the area, and the officer testified that a mole was in the area described by A.L. A photo of the mole was admitted into evidence. During the officer's testimony, the trial court admitted three pages from the journal Stepmother found in A.L.'s room and gave to the police. The journal entry was dated June 18, 2019, which was after A.L. turned seventeen. In her journal, A.L. described feeling unbalanced and stated the following: "No one can know my secret. The other night dad got mad at me again. For not taking initiative. He wants me to sit on his dick and make it 'fun.' But I do not want fun. I want my daddy. I want my dad back." A.L. also wrote the following: "If I wasn't so promiscuous, maybe he wouldn't have seen anything in me. Maybe he wouldn't see any attraction in me and he'd treat me like [her younger sister], a daughter. And I have asked him once, please let's stop. He thought I was just saying that 'to get out of it.'"

Once the officer finished testifying, a forensic analyst testified regarding the search that he performed on Lozano's phone and testified regarding searches that were performed on Lozano's phone in August 2021 after A.L. moved out. More specifically, the analyst explained that the phone had been used to watch a pornographic movie with the description "cute young nerdy tiny teen stepdaughter fucked by creepy stepdad." During the analyst's testimony, the trial court admitted exhibit 65, which was a list of the internet searches performed on Lozano's phone over a three-day period and showed that the phone performed thirty-one searches for pornography with similar descriptions.

Next, Stepmother testified that she found A.L.'s journal after A.L. moved out of the home, that she confronted Lozano after she moved out of the house with her children, and that Lozano denied engaging in any sexual behavior with A.L. and instead told Stepmother that A.L. was obsessed with him and would send him unsolicited sexual images. During Stepmother's testimony, the trial court admitted exhibits 68 and 68A through 68W, which were text messages between Lozano and Stepmother after Stepmother confronted Lozano. In those exchanges, Lozano denied any wrongdoing and, as support, forwarded to Stepmother communications that A.L. had sent to Lozano, including photos, but omitted the portions of the exchanges in which he responded to A.L. or initiated similar communications.

Following Stepmother's testimony, A.L.'s friend that she met in middle school testified that she had a serious conversation with A.L. in 2019 after A.L. had been living with Lozano but that A.L. begged her not to say anything about what A.L. disclosed. The friend did not provide any details regarding that conversation during her testimony. In her cross-examination, the friend recalled telling A.L. not to live with Lozano anymore after hearing A.L.'s disclosure about what had been happening at the house but that A.L. said that she would continue to live with Lozano and gather evidence about what had been happening.

The State's final witness was Dr. Stephen Thorne. In his testimony, Dr. Thorne discussed how children can be groomed for abuse and how children might never report abuse or might delay disclosing for a variety of reasons, including fear, shame, guilt, and love.

In his case-in-chief, Lozano called his mother ("Grandmother") to the stand, who testified that A.L. lived with her temporarily in 2019 after Lozano and Stepmother became frustrated with A.L.'s not helping around the house and not going to school. Grandmother related that A.L. made no outcry of abuse to her, that she never saw any interactions between A.L. and Lozano that concerned her, and that A.L. hated Mother.

After considering the evidence presented at trial, the jury found Lozano guilty of the charged offenses. During the punishment phase, the State called Stepmother to the stand, who testified that she had filed for divorce, that Lozano verbally abused her and their son, and that right after she gave birth to their youngest child, Lozano had sex with another woman in their house. In addition, Stepmother discussed how A.L. had recorded a conversation between Lozano and A.L. in which Lozano threatened A.L. During Stepmother's testimony, the trial court admitted into evidence exhibit 123, which was a recording of the conversation.

When making his case, Lozano called as witnesses Grandmother and his friend Anthony Simmons. Grandmother testified that Lozano lives with her now, that he helps her around the house, and that she has no one else to help her. Additionally, Grandmother stated that Lozano was working and paying child support. Lozano's friend Simmons testified that Lozano helps his family members and friends, including Grandmother and Simmons. Further, Simmons characterized Lozano as a great father who was there for his children. However, Simmons conceded during his cross-examination that sexually abusing someone is bad and that doing so more than once is even worse.

* * *

Lozano v. State, 03-23-00660-CR (Tex. App. Oct 18, 2024)

Outcome: After considering the evidence, the jury sentenced Lozano to twenty years' imprisonment in each count.

Affirmed

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