A jury convicted Jacob De La Paz on one charge against him but was hung on another in his trial earlier this month, and a hearing is set for Wednesday to set a new trial for that second count.
The jury convicted the former educator on a count of attempted receipt of child pornography, but couldn't agree on a charge accusing him of attempted production of child pornography.
Last week, prosecutors filed a Motion with the court, asking for a new trial on the production charge.
The Court granted the motion, and a status conference is set for Wednesday so the parties can discuss a new trial date for the charge.
The jury deliberated several hours following a two-day trial before convicting De La Paz on the attempted receipt charge, but the foreperson told the Court that they couldn't agree on the production charge and would not be able to do so.
De La Paz faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison for his conviction on the receipt charge. He's already been in jail since his indictment in May 2023, and the court ordered him to stay there pending an August sentencing date.
After the verdict was read, Assistant U.S. Attorney Luke Walker told the court that he would be filing paperwork to request a date for a new trial on the other charge as soon as possible. That's the paperwork that was filed last week - and that the Court granted.
De La Paz testified during the trial. De La Paz didn't deny sending a sexually explicit video of himself to a teenage high schooler while he was her math tutor, and he didn't deny that he recorded a video asking her to do the same for him - but he said it was all her idea.
De La Paz was a coach at St. Thomas More High School when the videos came to light last spring; the alleged victim was a 17-year-old high school senior at his old school, North Vermilion High. He was fired from STM back in April 2023 after the video of him asking the girl for a sexually explicit video began circulated online.
As KATC Investigates reported, De La Paz had previouslybeen disciplined in Arkansas for inappropriate text messages to a student. Despite that, he was hired in Vermilion Parish, and later by St. Thomas More High School. To read more about the case, click here and here.
Before the jury began deliberations, both sides presented their closing arguments.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Ledet Gardner told the jury that De La Paz knew the victim was 17 years old, because he told her once she had to wait until she was 18 to come to his house. He also knew that his communication with her - which took place on Facebook Messenger - was a violation of the rules of both schools.
"He admits he sent those videos, but he wants you to believe it was because she told him to," Gardner said.
She reminded the jury of De La Paz's testimony, in which he said the girl told him she hadn't deleted his video asking her for a sexually explicit video - and implied that's why he sent her a video of himself masturbating.
"He says he sent that because he was worried. You saw the video. Was he worried, or was he aroused?" Gardner said.
She reminded the jury that De La Paz's attorneys had called the girl's boyfriend, who said he created a fake Facebook account to threaten De La Paz with release of the videos.
"You know who does something dumb like that? A kid. A high school kid," Gardner said.
If the victim had somehow encouraged De La Paz, "so what?" Gardner said.
"She was 17. She can't consent to any sexual activity with an adult. And he's not just an adult. He was her teacher," she said. "He knew that, and he didn't care."
Kevin Stockstill, the defense attorney, argued that De La Paz wasn't guilty of asking the girl to create a video for him - because she'd already created the one she sent him. His computer expert testified that he found a sexually explicit video of the girl that was created in December.
The video in which De La Paz asks the girl to create a sex video "doesn't tell the whole story.
"It's just a snippet of time," Stockstill argued. "It takes what happened out of context."
The critical thing about that charge was De La Paz's intent, Stockstill argued. He was asking her to send him a video she already had made - not asking her to make one, he argued.
Although the courtroom was sealed during the victim's testimony, Stockstill described her testimony as "quite evasive" and "unreliable." But he also acknowledged his client's mistake.
"Shame on him," he said. "If he had been the adult in the room and said no - we wouldn't be here. That's on him, and he's suffering the consequences of that right now."
Stockstill also denied that De La Paz knew how old the girl was - even though he had been her teacher in school and was able to see her date of birth on her Facebook page - because he claims the girl said she was 18 during a conversation.
None of the conversations at issue were recovered by any of the computer experts in the case; the only conversation that was recovered was from the girl's phone and it was about math.
"What he did was wrong. He doesn't deserve to be a teacher. He put his family through having to see these videos," Stockstill said. "But she mislead him about her age."
Gardner, in her rebuttal closing, said De La Paz's memory about all those messages which had been deleted was suspect.
"Seventeen months later, and no evidence anywhere of these messages, but he remembers every word - even the emojis he used? Does that make sense?" she asked the jury.
She also asked jurors to consider who it is that has reasons to lie.
"She's a child. He's the adult. He did her what he told her to do. He tells her what he wants in that first video, and then he shows her," Gardner said.
After only a few minutes in the jury room Wednesday, the jury requested to see the video in which De La Paz asks the girl to make a sexually explicit video for him. A couple hours later, they said they had a veridict. The judge called them in, and the foreperson told him that they were unanimous on the second count, but could not agree on the first. She told the judge that several members of the jury had said they were not going to change their mind.
To read our story about the trial testimony, click here.
Here's some more background:
Just months after De La Paz was indicted in 2023, another STM coach was arrested, and indicted, on similar charges. He pleaded guilty and has been sentenced.
Angel Cardona, 35, pleaded guilty to one count of the indictment against him; in exchange, the government agreed to dismiss the other two charges after he is sentenced. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. Hewas sentencedto 10 years in prison.
The indictment accused Cardona of attempting to create child pornography on July 11 and July 13 of last year, and of using a facility between June 6 and June 24 to entice a child to engage in criminal sexual activity.
In court, he admitted to the enticement charge, admitting that he reached out to a person he thought was a 13-year-old girl in early June 2023. The person, to whom he was speaking online, said they were going to summer school and Cardona said he "thought I could help them." He continued talking to the person - who actually was an FBI agent - for about five weeks.
Then he asked for pictures of her, and agreed to meet her in person; they made a date to meet at Veteran's Park in Lafayette on July 24. Cardona told the judge that he asked for sexually explicit photos of the child. He used the Whisper and Kik apps, records show.
To read about his guilty plea, click here.
