CAMDEN — By BRADLY GILL
Staff writer
Circuit Judge Edwin Keaton has granted a motion of continuance in the trial of James Garcia according to court documents.
A jury trial was slated to being October 8th, but has now been moved to November 16 at 8 a.m.
James Garcia, 42, was arrested earlier this year by a special agent of the Arkansas State Criminal Investigation Division. Garcia was charged with second degree sexual assault in connection with a state police investigation into allegations of a sexual relationship with a student enrolled in the Harmony Grove School District.
He was incarcerated at the Ouachita County Detention Complex and bond was set at $25,000.
The official affidavit with portions redacted to protect the identity of the student said, “On Tuesday, April 03, 2018, investigators conducted an interview with a(name redacted) in regards to a teacher and softball coach (James Garcia) at Harmony Grove School sexually assaulting her daughter who is a student and softball player at Harmony Grove.”
”( She) stated that on March 20, 2018, she was taking two ladies to Little Rock and decided to stop back by her residence to check her mail. She stated when she pulled up she observed a white GMC pickup displayed on it sitting in her yard. She said that she went to the front door of the residence and found it to be locked. At that time she started beating on the door and after a few minutes her daughter came from the bedroom (She) said she watched her daughter put her shirt on before opening the door.”
“(She) stated she asked (a friend) to come inside the residence with her because she wanted someone with to be with her because she believed the truck to belonged to her daughter’s softball coach James Garcia.The mother then began to search the residence and located James Garcia hiding in a closet. She stated she began to scream at Garcia and shortly after that he left the residence.
“(She) provided investigators with a photograph of’a white GMC truck that returned to James and Jana Garcia sitting in the front yard of her residence on March 20.2018 at 10:34 a.m..
She also provided investigators with multiple messages that she and Garcia had sent to each other about the incident. (She) advised investigators back in October and November of 2017 that she had found that her daughter and Garcia were text messaging each other up to eighty or ninety times a day. (She) said she met with James and his wife about the texting and Jana Garcia assured her that it would stop.
Investigators interviewed the daughter about her relationship with Garcia. She state she and Garcia had kissed and he touched her breast, but they had not had sex. She stated they were going to have sex but her mom came home before they actually did have sex.