Jarren Wade Morua pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony, during 27th District Court proceedings March 6.
Morua, 29, of Lampasas, was sentenced to 30 years in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice facility.
The case was handled by Coryell County District Attorney Dusty Boyd’s office.
“My office was very proud to have the opportunity to advocate on behalf of the victims and families of the victims on the Morua case,” Boyd said in a statement to the Dispatch Record. “The victims are very courageous and brave people, and are surrounded by incredible, loving families.”
On May 10, 2023, Morua was indicted on charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14, two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child, and sexual assault of a child. The case was handed to Coryell County prosecutors after then Lampasas County District Attorney John Greenwood recused himself from the case.
Previously, based on 27th District Court documents, the Dispatch Record reported July 21, 2023 that Morua was accused of sexually assaulting a child under 17 years of age by oral contact on Oct. 21, 2021. He was accused of raping the same child a month later on Nov. 21, and allegedly threatened that serious bodily injury would be inflected upon her. Morua reportedly committed the same offense on Feb. 1, 2022.
Documents show Morua was accused of continuous sexual abuse of another child under the age of 14 between the time period of June 1, 2021 to Jan. 15, 2022, by sexual contact.
Despite several initial charges against Morua, Boyd said his office settled on the one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child that resulted in an outcome victims and their families were satisfied with.
“In collaboration with the victims in designing and in their support of the sentencing outcome for 30 years and waiving appeal, it was approved and agreed to drop counts one and three as they were no longer necessary to affect the number of sentencing years that the victims supported,” Boyd said. “In other words, those counts were no longer needed for our purposes in sentencing, being that the victims and their families were satisfied with the 30year sentence.”
Morua will be eligible for parole after he has served half or 15 years of his sentence.