Waco man sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2019 sexual assault of deaf girl
WACO, Texas (KWTX) - A Waco man who bragged he took a 13-year-old deaf girl’s virginity in 2019 was sentenced to 25 years in prison Wednesday.
Jurors in Waco’s 19th State District Court deliberated about 90 minutes before handing down 25-year prison terms for Roy Landaverde on each of four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. The jury deliberated about 20 minutes Tuesday before finding him guilty on all counts.
Landaverde, 22, will serve the sentences concurrently and must serve at least 12 ½ years in prison before he can seek parole. He faced from five to 99 years and up to life in prison on each count.
“I think this was a very fair verdict. I thought the jury did a great job deliberating and listening to all the facts,” said McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens, “They came back with a guilty verdict very quickly and deliberated some time today on the 25-year sentence for each count. I think that was well-deserved. I think that based on the facts of this case it was the right amount of time.”
Landaverde’s attorney, Michael Dahlenburg, called Landaverde’s mother to the stand during the punishment phase of the trial Wednesday morning. She cried and asked the jury to show her son mercy.
Dahlenburg said after the three-day trial that Landaverde will appeal his conviction. He asked the jury to assess a penalty that would allow Landaverde to see his family again and one that would offer him the ability to rebuild his life after his release on parole. He also told them that Landaverde will face multiple challenges when he is released because of a lifetime sex offender registration requirement.
Prosecutors Tara Avants and Liz Buice asked the jury for a sentence on the high end of the punishment range, telling jurors that Landaverde is a predator who lured the girl to his home, locked her in his room and took away her phone, her only way to communicate with the outside world.
Buice called Landaverde a predator and said he was only interested in his “self-fulfilling, narcissistic purposes.”
“‘I took your virginity,’” she said, quoting the girl’s testimony from Tuesday. “He bragged about it. She meant nothing to him. She was just a conquest… Our laws mean nothing unless they are enforced. What is a child’s innocence worth and how long do you want to protect our community from this man?”
Avants, countering Dahlenburg’s arguments, told the jury of six men and six women that the word “mercy” does not appear anywhere in the judge’s legal instructions to the panel.
She said in the aftermath of the assaults, the girl has suffered depression and required counseling in an attempt to recover from the trauma.
“You have the power today to do everything you can to protect her from his man,” Avants told jurors. “She is scared of him. You could see that. She didn’t even want to look at him in court.”
Landaverde testified Tuesday afternoon and denied the girl’s allegations. He told the jury that he only saw the girl twice – once at his girlfriend’s baby shower and once during an Easter gathering. He denied he texted the girl, denied he told her to lie to her grandmother about where she was going and denied he gave the girl a hickey on her chest while playing “Truth or Dare” during the Easter party.
Under questioning from Avants, Landaverde speculated the girl made up the story about the sexual assaults because she might be jealous of his relationship with his child’s mother, who also is deaf and was a friend of the girl.
The girl, who is being raised by her grandmother, can read lips and testified with the assistance of a sign language interpreter. She said she met Landaverde through her friend, the mother of Landaverde’s child and with whom she attended deaf education classes at school.
She said after the Easter party, Landaverde told her to lie to her grandmother in May 2019 and say she was spending the night with a friend. Instead, she got her grandmother to take her to Landaverde’s house.
“I didn’t think anything about anything happening,” she said.
They went to Landaverde’s room, where they “made out and played around a bit,” she said. But Landaverde locked the door and took her phone, she said.
After a break to compose herself emotionally, the girl testified that Landaverde sexually assaulted her four times over the next 15 hours. She said she told him no and tried to push him away, but he would not stop.
She said he told her not to tell anyone about the assaults and said, “I have taken your virginity.”
He returned her phone in the morning and she texted her grandmother to come pick her up, she testified. She didn’t tell her grandmother what happened, but later reported the assaults to a counselor at the Klaras Center.
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A jury on Wednesday sentenced a Waco man who bragged he took a 13-year-old deaf girl’s virginity in 2019 to 25 years in prison on each of the four counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child he was convicted for a day before.
Jurors in Waco’s 19th State District Court deliberated about an hour-and-a-half before handing down punishment for Roy Landaverde, who will serve the sentences concurrently and be eligible for parole in 12-and-a-half years.
The 22-year-old Landaverde, who was 17 at the time of the incident, has since fathered a child. He was facing from five to 99 years, and up to life in prison on each count.
Judge Thomas West ordered Landaverde, who had been free on bond, taken into custody after his conviction on Tuesday.
“I think this was a very fair verdict. I thought the jury did a great job deliberating and listening to all the facts,” said McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens, “They came back with a guilty verdict very quickly and deliberated some time today on the 25 year sentence for each count. I think that was well deserved. I think that based on the facts of this case it was the right amount of time.”
Landaverde testified Tuesday afternoon. He denied the girl’s allegations and told the jury that he only saw the girl twice – once at his girlfriend’s baby shower and once during an Easter gathering. He denied he texted the girl, denied he told her to lie to her grandmother about where she was going and denied he gave the girl a hickey on her chest while playing “Truth or Dare” during the Easter party.
When prosecutor Tara Avants asked what motivation the girl had to lie about the sexual assaults, Landaverde said he doesn’t know, but speculated that she might be jealous of his relationship with his child’s mother, who also is deaf and was a friend of the girl he sexually assaulted.
The girl, who is being raised by her grandmother, can read lips and testified with the assistance of a sign language interpreter. She said she met Landaverde through her friend, with whom she attended deaf education classes at school.
She said after the Easter party, Landaverde told her to lie to her grandmother in May 2019 and say she was spending the night with a friend. Instead, she got her grandmother to take her to Landaverde’s house.
“I didn’t think anything about anything happening,” she said.
They went to Landaverde’s room, where they “made out and played around a bit,” she said. But Landaverde closed the door and locked it with a slide bolt. He then took her phone from her, negating any form of outside communication she had.
Prosecutor Tara Avants asked what happened next. The girl paused and her demeanor changed. She asked for a break and went outside the courtroom. She cried as Avants and prosecutor Liz Buice tried to calm her enough to return to the witness stand.
She returned in about 10 minutes and told the jury that Landaverde sexually assaulted her four times over the next 15 hours. She said she told him no and tried to push him away, but he would not stop.
She said he told her not to tell anyone about the assaults and said, “I have taken your virginity.”
He returned her phone in the morning and she texted her grandmother to come pick her up, she testified. She didn’t tell her grandmother what happened, but later reported the assaults to a counselor at the Klaras Center.
The girl hesitated again when Avants asked her to identify Landaverde in the courtroom. The girl said she didn’t think she could look at him, but finally identified him for the court record.
The girl told the jury that she and Landaverde’s former girlfriend are no longer friends, blowing a hole in defense attorney Michael Dahlenburg’s opening statement to the jury on Monday that Landaverde’s former girlfriend and she “concocted” the sexual assault allegations in an attempt by the baby’s mother to gain custody of the child, which is being raised by Landaverde’s mother.
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