Former Austin ISD teacher sentenced to 71 years for child sex abuse charges

HAYS COUNTY, Texas – A former Austin ISD art teacher has been sentenced and convicted on 20 charges of crimes against children, including continuous sexual abuse of a child.

What we know:

54-year-old Kevin Abeyta, formerly of Austin, was convicted this week by a jury of:

• 1 count of first-degree felony continuous sexual abuse of a child
• 6 counts of second-degree felony possession of child pornography with intent to promote
• 7 counts of third-degree felony possession of child pornography

Abeyta was sentenced to 37 years on the first count, three years on each count of possession with intent to promote and two years on each count of possession.

District Judge Sherri Tibbe stacked the sentences and Abeyta must now serve 71 years. He is also not eligible for parole on the first count of continuous sexual abuse, says the Hays County Criminal District Attorney’s office.

The backstory:

The charges stem from a Hays County Sheriff’s Office investigation into Abeyta that began in February 2021 after an outcry of child sexual abuse.

Hays County law enforcement officials traveled to Georgia, where Abeyta was then living and working as an elementary school art teacher.

Several days after he was interviewed, he gave several hard drives to a friend, who discovered they had child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on them. The friend reported it to the authorities and the hard drives were collected and investigated.

More than a thousand media files were identified as CSAM, some including images and videos of the child victim. Abeyta had also been secretly filming at least one child under her desk at school.

Dig deeper:

Abeyta worked at Campbell Elementary School in Austin ISD as an art teacher. The child who initially reported the abuse was not a student, says the Hays County Criminal DA’s office.