A military jury has found former Air Force recruiter Tech. Sgt. Jaime Rodriguez guilty of all but the most serious charge against him.
Rodriguez was found not guilty of the rape of a woman at his recruiting office near Houston, but still faces the possibility of spending years in prison.
Rodriguez faced his accusers again on Thursday, some of whom were high school students at the time of the offenses. Lt. Col. Mark Hoover with the Judge Advocate General Office said ten of the women testified about their interactions with the recruiter.
"They essentially said about the same thing, that there was a pattern. He was very professional at first, then within a few weeks it turned into more flirty conversations and eventually led to more graphic sexual discussions including sexting of inappropriate pictures," Hoover said.
Including the 23 charges to which he pleaded guilty last week, Rodriguez was convicted on 29 of 30 offenses. Two of those offenses were sexual assault.
Hoover said the maximum punishment in the military for aggravated sexual assault is 30 years in prison, but the jury is permitted to select a punishment of up to 115 years.
In a court-martial last summer, Staff Sgt. Luis Walker was sentenced to 20 years in prison on convictions of rape and sexual assault, and is so far the only instructor convicted of rape.
*"Aggravated" was misspelled as "Aggrivated" in the headline, and has since been fixed.
