Harris County man sentenced to 38 years for child sexual assault

Jose Miguel Zelaya-Ponce was sentenced to 38 years in prison in Harris County after being convicted of continuous sexual assault of a child. The sentence, handed down Jan. 13, 2026, closed a case that had put him on Texas’ most wanted criminal illegal immigrants list and kept Harris County courts focused on a violent offense involving a child under 14.

Texas Department of Public Safety identified Zelaya-Ponce as a Honduran national and said a Harris County warrant was issued for his arrest on July 24, 2024, for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 14. DPS said he was added to Texas’ 10 Most Wanted Criminal Illegal Immigrants list before he was captured in Houston on Aug. 23, 2024.

The arrest came after Texas Crime Stoppers offered a reward of up to $3,000 for information leading to his capture. DPS said no reward would be paid because the arrest did not come from a tip. State records also show that Zelaya-Ponce had been arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in April 2021 and later released on an order of recognizance. In June 2024, DPS said, he was issued a final order of removal.

The case fits a larger pattern of strain in Harris County’s handling of sexual assault reports. A Harris County Sexual Assault Response Team report found that from the beginning of 2022 through August 2023, only 60 of more than 2,200 reported sexual assaults in the county’s largest law-enforcement agencies ended in convictions. Victims’ advocates have said the system remains backlogged and difficult for survivors, even as child sexual-abuse cases continue to receive priority attention from county prosecutors.

Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare has said in related cases that prosecutors and the county’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit will pursue offenders to bring them to justice, even if they flee the country. The Zelaya-Ponce case moved from warrant to arrest to conviction and prison sentence, underscoring both the reach of local law enforcement and the pressure on Harris County courts to resolve serious child-abuse cases.