Police have charged a 22-year-old McAllen man with three counts of aggravated sexual assault over allegations he harbored a runaway from Brownsville and had sex with the 16-year-old.
McAllen police arrested Oscar Gerardo De Lira last Thursday and also charged him with harboring a runaway child and possession of marijuana.
He is currently in the Hidalgo County Detention Center on a total of $305,000 in bonds on the charges.
A probable cause affidavit for the man’s arrest alleges he met the teen, who authorities refer to by the pseudonym of Doris Garza, on the social media app Snapchat and drove to Brownsville to pick her up.
“I traveled to the hospital and made contact with Doris. Doris stated she began communicating with Oscar using the application Snapchat and made arrangements for him to pick her up at her home in Brownsville, TX. She stated she told Oscar that she was 16 years old and he could get in trouble if he decided to go through with this but he stated he was aware and still wanted to have sexual intercourse with her,” a detective wrote in the probable cause affidavit.
The girl was in the hospital because police say she suffered internal bleeding from having sex with De Lira and required a blood transfusion. She also underwent a sexual assault examination, according to police.
Garza’s mother tracked her daughter down through GPS once the teen turned on her phone, according to police.
The teen had left her Brownsville home on Sept. 28, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Garza told the detective that is when De Lira drove to Brownsville and picked her up before they had sex in his vehicle in a nearby neighborhood, police say. After that, authorities allege that De Lira drove Garza to his McAllen apartment where she stayed until her mother and police found her on Sept. 30.
“Doris stated while she was at Oscar’s apartment in McAllen they had sexual intercourse on three occasions,” the probable cause affidavit states.
An officer made contact with the man after Garza’s mother drove to the apartment complex indicated in her daughter’s phone’s GPS coordinates, authorities say.
“The male identified himself as Oscar Delira (sic), who was asked if he was by himself inside the apartment. At the point Oscar gave me a blank look and began to sweat profusely,” the probable cause affidavit states.
Police say he then admitted that the teen was inside his apartment.
He is also charged with possession of marijuana, less than 2 ounces, after the officer found marijuana in plain sight inside his apartment, according to the probable cause affidavit.
