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Yalibat was arrested July 26
Accepting guilty pleas relating to raping and invasively recording three minors who were left in a man’s care after their mother was deported, a Jefferson County judge sentenced a 48-year-old Beaumonter to 100 years in prison.
According to a Sept. 21 news release from the office of Criminal District Attorney Bob Wortham, Carlos Yalibat was sentenced to 100 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for 13 cases involving sexual abuse and commercial sexual exploitation of children.
There was no plea agreement between the state and Yalibat, and Yalibat elected Judge Raquel West to decide his punishment. Judge West sentenced Yalibat to 20 years for the second-degree felony of indecency with a child, 20 years for the second-degree felony of sexual performance of a child, 10 years for the third-degree felony of attempted sexual performance of a child, and 5 years each for 10 third-degree felony cases of possession of child pornography. Judge West ordered Yalibat’s sentences to run consecutively. Yalibat must also register as a sex offender for the rest of his life if he is ever released on parole.
On May 20, 2019, the Beaumont Police Department (BPD) initiated an investigation into Yalibat after receiving a call from a 19-year-old girl. The teen reported that she and her two younger sisters were left to live with Yalibat in 2012 after their mother was deported. They were approximately 9, 10 and 12 years old when they began living alone with him and completely dependent on him. The oldest sister described being sexually abused by Yalibat, which was observed by her two younger sisters. He also frequently offered to get their nails done in exchange for naked photos of them. Yalibat provided a digital camera to one of the victims to take photos of her genitals and then gave her $20. He also secretly recorded all three victims while they were showering. He drilled holes into the bathroom ceiling and recorded the victims with his cell phone from the attic. In addition to the photos and videos of the three victims, Yalibat possessed an additional 592 images and 157 videos of child pornography.
The case was prosecuted by Special Crimes Chief Kimberly Hobbs Duchamp and investigated by Detective Jeff Curl with the BPD. The District Attorney’s Office would like to acknowledge the hard work of Detective Curl. These cases were the last he investigated before retiring from law enforcement in 2020 after 26 years with the Beaumont Police Department. Detective Curl spent most of his career in the Special Crimes Unit where he focused on cases involving sexual exploitation of children, and right up until the very end, he was doing what he did best, protecting vulnerable children.
As always, the District Attorney’s Office would also like to recognize the bravery of the victims in coming forward to report the abuse.