Church Volunteer Convicted of Molesting 5 Girls

A 60-year-old man was convicted Wednesday of sex assaults on five girls in Orange County, including victims he met as a church volunteer.

Jesus Heras Garcia was convicted of 12 counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor, one count of oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child 10 or younger, two counts of lewd or lascivious acts with a minor younger than 14 and one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child with a foreign object, all felonies.

The charges date back to 1986, according to court records.

Three sisters when they were in their late teens and mid-20s reported to police in December 2018 that the defendant who they met through a church had molested them, police said.

Garcia was a volunteer at the Case de Vida Church in Corona and became a close family friend of the victims, police said. Investigators later tracked down two more girls who reported they were abused, police said.

One 16-year-old victim reported to Placentia police in 2010 she had been abused by the defendant, police said.

In 2018, another victim, who was 21, said Garcia sexually abused her multiple times when she was 7 at his home at the time in Riverside, police said. Garcia met that family through the church as well, police said.