A Lubbock mother sat Wednesday in front of Jeffrey Flores and told him that her family will forever know him as the “monster” and her son as the hero, who exposed his evil deeds.
Moments before, jurors in the 140th District Court deliberated for about 10 minutes before returning with a verdict sentencing Flores, 49, to life in prison without the possibility of parole after finding him guilty earlier that day of a count of continuous sexual abuse of a child. He faced a punishment of 25 years to life in prison without parole.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal does not identify victims of sexual abuse.
Jurors found that Flores, who did not testify in the trial, sexually abused the boy at least twice outside of a 30-day period.
Flores pleaded not guilty to an indictment that alleged three episodes of abuse between 2015 and 2022.
The verdicts came after a trial that began Monday, during which jurors heard from the boy who told them that Flores, a family friend, sexually abused him more than 10 times since he was 7 years old when he would sleep over at Flores’ home.
He said he met Flores when he was about 4 or 5 years old and lived at the same apartment complex. He said he became best friends with his son and would often sleep over.
The boy, now 15, told jurors that the first episode of abuse he remembers was when he was asleep and Flores entered the room and raped him.
He said while Flores abused him, he told him that “It’s just a dream.”
The abuse stopped for a while when Flores’ family moved to a house.
He said the sleepovers resumed and so did the abuse.
“It was nasty,” he said.
He said he considered Flores a father figure since his own father was not around.
“At first he was nice, friendly, did a lot of stuff for me … bought us food, took us out, stuff like that …,” the boy said. “Then we he did all the bad stuff, I didn’t think of him like that anymore.”
He said Flores told him not to tell anyone about the abuse.
“He would say that nobody will believe you,” he said.
The boy told jurors that Flores often texted him telling him to “come over.”
At some point, he said blocked Flores from his phone and would tell his mother that he didn’t want to go over to the Flores’ anymore but never told his mother why.
“‘Cause I didn’t want the bad stuff to happen to me,” he told jurors.
The boy’s mother told jurors that Flores began messaging her, asking if her son wanted to come over, saying his son missed him.
Jurors saw text messages between Flores and the boy’s mother, during which Flores would repeatedly ask for her son to come over, saying his son wanted to play with her son.
The abuse ended in January 2022, when the boy returned home after Flores raped him and he told his mother and grandmother, who called the police.
Evidence at the trial showed the boy went to Flores’ house after he texted the boy’s mother asking if her son wanted to come over and even offered to take him to his brother’s for a free haircut.
A sexual assault nurse examiner told jurors she found injuries on the boy that was consistent with his outcry.
Meanwhile, a swab collected from inside the boy was sent to a Texas Department of Public Safety forensic scientist, who found semen.
Jason White told jurors that he analyzed the biological evidence and found a strong indication that the semen found inside the boy anus belonged to Flores.
“There is very strong support for the proposition that suspect Flores is a possible contributor to the profile,” he said.
Flores’ attorney, Matt Morrow, argued to jurors that prosecutors failed to prove his client was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, attacking the way detectives investigated the case.
He said investigators failed to follow a protocol that requires forensic interviewers to be the first to speak to child victims to avoid influencing their statements.
“That is why we see (the boy) adding details to the story the more people he told,” Morrow argued.
During the trial, Morrow called on multiple members of Flores’ family, who provided an alibi for Flores’ whereabouts the night the boy said he was last raped.
The defense witnesses said that the house was full of people preparing for a celebration the next day.
They said the boy played video games all night with two other boys while Flores was with them making t-shirts.
However, the witnesses’ told jurors that they didn’t know what Flores did after they left the home.
Flores’ wife, however, told jurors that her husband was in their room the entire night.
Meanwhile, prosecutors confronted Caton Porter, with a statement she gave CPS workers during a parallel investigation during which she didn’t mention anything about the gathering at the home that night.
Morrow also argued that the lab results of the biological evidence couldn’t confirm with scientific certainty how Flores’ DNA ended up inside the boy.
Prosecutor Cassie Graham told jurors that the defense witnesses, including his wife, had every reason to lie for Flores.
“Of course they’re going to come in here and give him every single alibi,” she said. “They are on his side.”
However, they said the DNA evidence investigators collected in the case was indisputable proof of Flores’ guilt.
“They want you to believe this was transferred in some way,” she said. “That is factually impossible. You know exactly how it was put there.”
Jurors deliberated for about 15 minutes before returning with a verdict finding Flores guilty as charged.
During the punishment phase of the trial, Morrow asked jurors to consider a sentence at the lower end of the range, 25 years.
He said the sentence was enough time to keep Flores, who is in poor health, in prison and away from the boy and the community but still allow him to be released from prison when he is old and no longer a danger to the community.
“Any sentence you give is going to eat up the vast majority of Jeff’s natural life,” he said. “These are 25 Christmases, 25 birthdays, 25 years that he will have to do day-for-day, without the hope, without the promise, of parole. “
Graham told jurors that a life sentence without parole was the only sentence Flores, who once worked at a local ministry, deserved in the case.
“Jeffrey Flores will never be a safe person for kids to be around,” she told jurors. “And you know that … He was a wolf in minister’s clothing.”
She told jurors that Flores’ actions will haunt the boy for the rest of his life.
“This will never leave (the boy),” she said. “For the rest of his life, he’s going to remember what Jeff did to him when he was 6, 10, 11, and 12.”
Graham said after the trial that the jury’s verdict and sentence sends a message that sexual abuse will not be tolerated in Lubbock.
She said while the evidence against Flores was overwhelming, it required the boy’s courage to get justice.
“I believe that the victim in this case was very courageous coming forward, putting a stop to this violence that he was suffering at the hands of the defendant, and we’re very thankful that he came forward and had the courage to do so,” she said.
The boy’s mother told Flores that his betrayal destroyed her family.
“You were a father figure to (my son),” she told Flores through sobs. “For seven years, and I trusted you with him. I trusted that you would keep him safe, and you betrayed that trust. You broke my heart in a million pieces. I will never forget what you’ve done to my baby.”
However, she said she had to forgive him for her sake.
“(My son) is not a victim to your evil acts, but he is a hero and he spoke out and no other kid will have to go through the same thing,” she told Flores. “Our lives are forever changed because of you, and you will always be a villain in our lives. I never thought this day would come. The day we would finally get justice. The day the monster would go away forever.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Life sentence handed to man convicted of continuous child sexual abuse
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