The 29-year-old was convicted of child sex trafficking after a girl’s attorney says the teen was kidnapped and assaulted at a Dallas motel.
DALLAS — A man pleaded guilty Thursday in Rockwall County to child sex trafficking after allegedly kidnapping a 13-year-old girl last year, taking her to a Dallas motel, and sexually assaulted her, an attorney representing the girl said.
Now, she’s also considering legal action against the motel, according to the attorney.
Andres Jose Castillo-Torres, 29, was sentenced to 15 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court records showed.
The case stems from an incident April 22, 2024 in which a 13-year-old girl was kidnapped after leaving a youth volleyball tournament, dragged into a vehicle, driven to a Dallas Motel 6 and sexually assaulted by Castillo, according to Michelle Simpson Tuegel, the attorney representing the girl.
The incident happened at a Motel 6 in the 1600 block of Regal Row between I-35E and Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas, Tuegel said.
“I commend the Rockwall County DA’s Office for helping deliver swift and effective criminal justice and keeping my client and her family’s best interest at heart. While today’s conviction is a positive step, it is just the beginning of her road to justice and healing,” Tuegel said in a statement.
WFAA has reached out to attorneys for Castillo and Motel 6 for comment. We’ll update this story as additional information becomes available.
Tuegel said the girl is also considering legal action against Motel 6.
“While today’s conviction is a positive step, it is just the beginning of her road to justice and healing. We will do everything in our power to hold Motel 6 and any other institutions who enabled this child to be sex trafficked and sexually abused fully accountable for this preventable tragedy,” Tuegel said.
It wouldn’t be the first time a hotel company has faced litigation in connection with trafficking.
The attorney representing the family of a 15-year-old girl who went missing from the American Airlines Center in 2022 – where she’d been watching a Dallas Mavericks game – and was later found to have been trafficked at an Oklahoma hotel also filed a lawsuit against the hotel’s parent companies.
“What we always look at in these cases are what properties and what corporations and entities had the ability to protect this child who was on their property and did they fail to do so,” Tuegel told WFAA.