SAN ANTONIO — A convicted sex offender out on parole was arrested again after being caught sexually assaulting a young girl, according to the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.
"Up until this morning he was on parole for sexual assault," Sheriff Javier Salazar said about the suspect, 34-year-old Marquise Anton Moore. "He just got out of prison in September is my understanding. This morning, we received a call at about 6:20 to a home in east Bexar County that this suspect was caught in the act of sexually assaulting a little girl, 10 years old."
Salazar said the assault happened around 2:30 a.m. After he was caught, Moore started taking cell phones away from everyone in the home, according to the sheriff, and then took several sleeping pills in a possible suicide attempt. When he fell asleep, a person in the home called police.
Moore was booked into the Bexar County Jail for aggravated sexual assault of a child.
"Here's a guy that hasn't even been in the free world for two months, and he's already reoffending," said Salazar. "I would say while we all want to believe that people can be rehabilitated, and certainly I know that there are a bunch of examples of people being successfully rehabilitated, I also tend to think that a good predictor of future behavior is past behavior. This suspect is an example of just that; put away in prison for the sexual assault of a young lady and came out and just started doing the same thing again."
Salazar called Moore a "career criminal" and said he had one prior conviction for a sexual offense with a victim around 15 or 16 years old. Moore was sentenced to four years in prison, the sheriff said, but was released after serving two years.
The 34-year-old had been arrested over a dozen times in Bexar County for other alleged offenses, authorities say.
"I'm floored," a woman responded to the latest arrest. "I am beyond devastated for the family. To know that they are going to have to walk in the same steps that I have had to, furious doesn't begin to convey the level of aggravation with the District Attorney's Office. Again, I ask, 'When do kids begin to matter?'"
KENS 5 is not publicly identifying the woman to protect her daughter, who is a sexual assault victim. We first spoke with her last week. She says her friend’s husband began sexually assaulting her daughter when she was 7 years old.
The woman said she discovered 47-year-old Sean Joseph Haynes was a convicted sex offender after her daughter made an outcry. Haynes was sentenced to five years in prison in Missouri for his previous offense, but was released early on parole.
The woman has waited more than four years for justice in her daughter's case. However, court proceedings have been pushed back more than a dozen times.
Last week, Haynes cut off his ankle monitor and fled. The convicted sex offender is now at large and wanted by police.
“If I could give two impact statements; one would be to [Haynes]," said the mother. "The other one I would give to the judges and the District Attorney’s Office because they failed.”
The victim, now 12, also shared a message with KENS 5 on Monday.
"I'm mad," said the child. "I don't feel like the people who are supposed to protect us kids are doing their jobs correctly. Why was [Moore] even out of jail after only two years? Two years compared to forever isn't fair. If I could talk to the other kid, I'd say, 'I'm sorry you had to go through it, but now that you're here, we've got to look out for other kids. We've got to put these guys in jail so they can't do it to anybody else.' To the attorneys who are supposed to put bad guys away: 'You suck.'"
The Bexar County District Attorney's Office responded to our request for comment.
First Assistant Criminal District Attorney Christian Henricksen released the following statement:
“We in the Bexar County District Attorney’s Office are angry any time that a registered sex offender is released early from a state prison. Those who abuse our children should serve every day of their sentence.
Because our office has a responsibility to follow the law in seeing that justice is done, we cannot comment on individual cases while those cases remain pending. However, we take cases involving the sexual abuse of children extremely seriously and will vigorously prosecute any abuser within the confines of the law and the evidence.
As an office and as a community, we strongly condemn sexual abuse – especially sexual abuse of children. We will continue to put our energy and effort into establishing the guilt of defendants indicted by a grand jury and charged with sexual abuse, ensuring that perpetrators are punished for their crimes, and sending a message that Bexar County has zero tolerance for those who would hurt our children."
KENS 5 also reached out to Bexar County Judge Peter Sakai. We are waiting to hear back.
"We do these things again in hopes that if there are other victims out there that they feel comfortable coming to us, either of this suspect or anything of a similar nature at the hands of anybody else," said Salazar. "I want people to know that law enforcement will help and you can call us at any time 210-335-6000. You can also email us at BCSOtips@bexer.org. Now my hope is to put [Moore] behind bars, hopefully send him off to prison again, and hopefully they'll keep them there where he belongs at this point. Obviously, this this young lady is going to be living with the consequences of this guy's actions probably the rest of her life. I hope that we can bring her some form of justice moving forward."