A Texas man has been charged with sexually assaulting his 17-year-old daughter after she left a dead baby in a Walmart restroom last week.
According to the police, a girl informed investigators that Jerry Lee Martinez, aged 45, started “inappropriately touching her” when she was 15, eventually leading to rape, as reported by KIII. The girl stated Martinez was the father of her child and that he took her to Mexico the previous Monday for an abortion. She mentioned that when the baby was stillborn, she left it in a Walmart bathroom on that day.
She also told investigators that her father punched her in the stomach on multiple occasions when he learned she was pregnant.
After Walmart employees discovered the deceased baby, police reviewed surveillance footage and saw the girl entering a car in the parking lot. They later identified and pulled over the vehicle. Martinez and the girl were both in the car.
Initially, Martinez faced charges of child endangerment, witness tampering, and evidence tampering. On Friday, San Patricio District Attorney Marjorie Silva announced an additional charge of sexual assault of a child. A new bond of $1 million has been set on top of his previous $300,000 bond, as reported by KRIS.
Should he make the bond, he is ordered to have no contact with his family, including the victim, or witnesses.
Police said last week that Martinez’s stepfather, 60-year-old Mario Duran, had also been arrested, although they didn’t say if it was connected with the child rape investigation. His bond was set at $300,000.
The daughter is in a “secure location,” police said.
