Man gave pill to runaway girl and sexually abused her

According to Laredo police, a man gave a 12-year-old girl a pill and then abused her while she slept at a local hotel.

Jose Angel Vega, 33, was recently served with an arrest warrant charging him with aggravated sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony. Webb County Jail records show Vega remained behind bars Thursday.

The case occurred around 4 p.m. on Jan. 17 when Laredo police officers responded to a possible recovery of a runaway 12-year-old girl at the AmeriK Suites at 6551 Metro Court.

Officers located the girl in a room with a man identified as Vega. That’s when he was arrested and charged with harboring a runaway, possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana.

The girl was taken to the Children’s Advocacy Center for a forensic interview. She alleged that a man touched her a year ago. She also added that she was driven by a private individual to the hotel where Vega was staying, the affidavit states.

During the interview, the child deceived the details of the runaway and the number of days she spent with Vega at the AmeriK Suites, according to court documents.

Surveillance footage from AmeriK Suites showed the girl arrived at the hotel on Jan. 15 and stayed there until police found her on Jan. 17, the affidavit said.

An investigator spoke with the girl after the forensic interview. She stated that she was not sure if anything had happened to Vega. The girl stated that Vega gave her a pill and she fell asleep for a few hours. She didn’t know what was happening while she was sleeping, authorities said.

“(The girl) recalled the last time she was with Vega approximately a year ago when she woke up and had hickeys on her chest area,” the affidavit states.

The girl agreed to undergo a Sexual Assault Nurse Examination, or SANE exam. A DNA lab report from the Texas Department of Public Safety Crime Lab determined it was “a mix of two individuals,” the affidavit said.

Further testing linked Vega to the girl’s SANE lab results, according to court documents.