Valentine Reyes Jr. has been convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to the maximum amount of 20 years in prison, to be served consecutively with the 25 years he received in an earlier case related to sexual assault.

The defendant was also convicted by a jury earlier of the attempted bribery of a jail guard and sentenced to 12 years by the jury. The sentence is to run concurrent with the 25 years received in the first sexual assault case, Kleberg-Kenedy County District Attorney John Hubert said.

Although the latest case was set for trial on Oct. 5, Reyes decided to waive a jury and asked District Judge Manuel Bañales to hear a plea of “no contest.”

After evidence submitted by Assistant District Attorney Carlos O. Garcia was admitted, Judge Bañales found Reyes guilty of sexual assault, a second degree felony, Hubert said.

Reyes’s attorney, Coretta Graham, asked the court for leniency in the sentence and for any sentence to run concurrent with the prior sentences Reyes was serving.

“However, after hearing all of the evidence and the pre-sentence report,

Judge Bañales sentenced Valentine Reyes Jr. to a 20 year consecutive sentence in prison, which means that Reyes will not start serving this sentence until after he completes his mandatory time on the 25 year sentence he is currently serving.

“The evidence was very strong in this case,” stated DA Hubert. “However, there is never any guarantee in trial,” he said.

“We agreed to waive our right to a jury trial and gave up the opportunity to have a victim testify in front of a jury at the guilt phase of the trial,” Hubert said.

“By doing this Mr. Garcia spared some of the trauma of the trial for the victim and relied on the judge to come up with the appropriate sentence based on the seriousness of the crime and the defendant’s prior history,” the DA said.

“When Judge Bañales sentenced the defendant to the maximum sentence, to run consecutive, he ensured that it will be a long time before this defendant is released upon the public again,” Hubert said.