Former Del Rio detective returns to court on child sex charges

Joshua Garcia’s child-sex case stayed in the public eye as the former Del Rio Police Department detective returned to the Val Verde County 83rd Judicial District Court, where Judge Robert E. Cadena reset the matter for June 22 at 9 a.m.

Garcia, 33, sat quietly in the audience gallery for much of the morning before his case was called shortly after 9 a.m. The docket call was one item among nearly 100 matters on the court’s morning calendar. Cadena presided, Assistant District Attorney Daniel Esquivel appeared for the state, and defense attorney Adam Setra of San Antonio represented Garcia.

When Cadena asked where things stood, Setra said he hoped to resolve some pretrial matters before deciding whether to file more motions. He later told the court he was trying to arrange a meeting with District Attorney Suzanne West. The judge reset the case for the June docket, leaving the matter in place but moving it forward to the next scheduled hearing.

The hearing mattered because Garcia’s case has already shaken confidence in local law enforcement. Garcia was fired from the Del Rio Police Department in late October 2025 after his indictment on four counts. Those charges include sexual assault of a child, possession of child pornography, possession and promotion of lewd visual material depicting a child, and official oppression. One allegation dates to about January 1, 2021 and accuses Garcia of having sexual intercourse with a child younger than 17.

The case first drew formal scrutiny on April 22, 2025, when the Texas Rangers and the Del Rio Police Department opened a joint investigation. Reports tied the probe to allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female under 17 and said investigators found explicit images of a girl on Garcia’s cellphone, with a forensic review turning up multiple explicit images of the victim.

For Val Verde County, the case now sits in the 83rd Judicial District Court, one of the county’s two district courts. Cadena has served as the county’s 83rd District Judge since February 15, 2013, and West’s office, which prosecutes felony crimes in Val Verde, Kinney and Terrell counties, will remain central as the case advances through pretrial litigation. For now, the June 22 setting is the next public checkpoint in a case still moving at a deliberate pace.