Naason Joaquin Garcia pleads guilty to sexually abusing 3 children
Days ahead of trial and after his lawyers claimed he is “100% innocent,” Naason Joaquin Garcia, the leader of a Mexico-based megachurch, has pleaded guilty to multiple felony counts of sexual assault involving three separate minors, according to California state prosecutors.
The 53-year-old leader of the Guadalajara-based church La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World) filed the guilty plea three days before the trial was to begin, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the California attorney general’s office.
The former preacher pleaded guilty to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child, the newswire said, adding that a co-defendant, Susana Medina Oaxaca, also pleaded guilty to a charge of assault likely to cause great bodily harm.
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Attorney General Robert Andres Bonta called the conviction “a clear message that sexual exploitation is never acceptable in California.”
“We will hold you accountable if you break the law,” he was quoted as saying by Fox 11.
“As the leader of La Luz del Mundo, Naason Joaquin Garcia used his power to take advantage of children. He relied on those around him to groom congregants for the purposes of sexual assault. Today’s conviction can never undo the harm, but it will help protect future generations.”
Another co-defendant, Alondra Ocampo, pleaded guilty two years ago to three felony counts of contact with a minor for purposes of committing a sexual offense and one count of forcible sexual penetration.
The three had faced 36 felony offenses, including charges of rape, human trafficking and child pornography but most of those counts were dropped in exchange for the guilty pleas.
Garcia, who faces up to 16 years and eight months in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday morning.
The former megachurch leader was arrested in the summer of 2019 at the Los Angeles International Airport. He and several co-defendants were charged with human trafficking, production of child pornography, forcible rape of a minor and other felonies committed between 2015 and 2019.
A group of girls was allegedly told that if they went against Garcia’s desires, “they were going against God,” according to the criminal complaint.
On March 15, Garcia’s defense attorney Alan Jackson and his team had argued in a 211-page motion that the case brought against Garcia was based on fabricated evidence.
In their motion, Garcia’s defense team said they reviewed more than 70,000 texts messages and that some of Garcia’s accusers were sexually active, angst-filled teenagers who lied, shoplifted, used drugs, drank alcohol, struggled with mental health and spoke of having sex with the church leader for money.
In a statement posted on his church’s Facebook page at the time, the megachurch pastor’s followers professed his innocence, stating: “We have full confidence that the time will come when the innocence and honorability of the Apostle of Jesus Christ, Naason Joaquin, will be demonstrated, because the lie prevails only until the truth comes to light.”
