By Andy Sevilla 

A Hays County Grand Jury indicted a Kyle man with four counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child by sexual contact stemming from alleged abuses that took place over a six-month period.

Miguel Mateo-Esquivel, 27 was arrested April 2 and faces a first-degree felony charge and five second-degree felony charges for allegedly trafficking and sexually assaulting a child several times between August 2013 and February of this year. 

Authorities first learned of the alleged abuses after the victim’s mother told police she found Esquivel in her child’s bedroom in the early-morning hours of March 30. 

The victim’s mother, who told investigators she’s known Esquivel for at least two years, said she caught the suspect “peeking” his head out of the child’s room and looking down both sides of the hallway in an attempt to sneak out sometime after 2 a.m., according to court documents.

The victim’s mother barreled into the child’s bedroom when she noticed Esquivel peeking his head out and pushed through him while he stood at the door, and found her child standing behind him as he tried to make his exit, according to the probable cause affidavit used to secure an arrest warrant for the suspect.

When confronted, the victim told her mother “nothing happened,” and Esquivel, who was staying the night at their residence, told the victim’s mother he made a mistake and fell asleep in the wrong bedroom, the child’s mother is cited as telling police in court documents.

At a forensic interview April 1, the victim told investigators that Esquivel had only kissed her on the mouth the night the mother caught the suspect in the child’s room; but after becoming “very emotional and started crying,” the child told forensic interviewers that they had been having intercourse over the past six months, court documents state.

The victim told investigators that Esquivel and (the child) have had intercourse a total of eleven or 12 times in the last six months, with the first happening last August. The victim said the last time they participated in intercourse was some Saturday in February, court documents state.

Jail records show Esquivel remains in custody on the child trafficking and sexual assault warrants Hays County Pct. 2 Justice of the Peace Beth Smith signed on April 1. He is also being held on the five indictments handed down to him June 18. 

Esquivel’s total bond is $230,000. 

An indictment does not find a suspect guilty. It is a formal charge of a serious crime that warrants a trial. 

Hays County jail records show Esquivel was previously arrested in 2010 for driving without a license and without insurance, both Class C Misdemeanors.