HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Reynaldo Zepeda, 41, has been arrested in the Texas town of Nolanville after Harris County Sheriff’s Office child abuse unit investigators released a statement on Thursday that he was charged in the continuous sexual assault of a child, specifically, the 13-year-old daughter of his common law wife.
Zepeda was arrested at 9 p.m. Thursday in Nolanville, west of Belton. He was living in the town of Alliance in western Nebraska. Alliance police went to his home and contacted family members who told officers that Zepeda had left for Belton earlier in the week.
Investigators waited for Zepeda to leave the home in Nolanville and detained him as he tried to drive away. They later questioned Zepeda before booking him into the Bell County Sheriff's Office jail on a possession of a controlled substance charge after investigators found a methamphetamine on him.
The capture of Zepeda was a joint effort between the Harris County Sheriff's Office, Alliance police and Nolanville police.
The sexual assaults of the teen girl took place over a period of almost twenty months.
Zepeda had already been charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon of his common law wife and her 14-year-old son. He and the adult woman were already separated when she arrived to her home and found him inside. When she told Zepeda to leave, deputies say he struck her several times before using a knife to stab her in the chest. When the boy came to help his mother, deputies say Zepeda stabbed the teen. Both the boy and his mother have since recovered from their stab wounds.