Friday, June 19, 2009
Mariana Garcia, an Austin woman who along with her boyfriend is accused of videotaping the sexual assault of two children, was booked into Travis County Jail on Thursday after being extradited from Mexico, Deputy U.S. Marshal Hector Gomez said.
Garcia, 23, had been in custody in Mexico City since February, days after her boyfriend, 29-year-old Adrian Navarro, was arrested on Jan. 30 in Austin.
Navarro is charged with aggravated sexual assault, a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison, and promotion of child pornography, a second-degree felony that carries a maximum 20-year sentence. Garcia is charged with aggravated sexual assault.
She was formally extradited by the Mexican government earlier this week, Gomez said. She was flown to San Antonio before being brought to the Travis County Jail, Austin police child abuse unit Detective Joel Pridgeon said.
The extradition took several months because Garcia is a Mexican citizen, Pridgeon said. Navarro is a U.S. citizen, he said.
"The case is closed for the Austin Police Department," Pridgeon said. "Now it's at the district attorney's office."
An affidavit said that a detective went to Garcia's Austin apartment on Jan. 22 during a search for stolen property. The detective found a computer hard drive and photos determined to be child pornography.
Navarro told police that he got the pornography from a relative and had been meaning to throw it away, the affidavit said.
On one hard drive, detectives found more than 500 photographs and more than 15 videos of child pornography, the affidavit said. In one video, Garcia was seen holding a girl "that appears under the age of 2" while Navarro assaulted the child, according to arrest affidavits.
Pridgeon said the children remain in the custody of Child Protective Services.