ODEM, Tx — Two additional juveniles have been charged with indecency with a child in connection with the December school bus assault case involving Odem-Edroy Independent School District, San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera confirmed to KRIS 6 News.
Rivera said both juveniles face charges tied to the December 9 incident, in which students were returning from a basketball game in Hebbronville. One juvenile faces a second-degree felony charge; the other faces a third-degree felony charge.
Rivera told KRIS 6 News he does not have the ages of the two juveniles. Under Texas law, juveniles who are detained are typically held pending a special hearing within 10 days, at which point a judge determines next steps, Rivera said.
Because the suspects are juveniles, their identities are not being released.
The case began December 9, 2025, when a juvenile student was assaulted on an Odem-Edroy ISD school bus returning from a basketball game in Hebbronville. Christopher Jacob Soto, then 19, was arrested in early January and charged with indecency with a child, a second-degree felony. A magistrate set his bond at $75,000.
In January, Rivera told KRIS 6 News, the San Patricio County Sheriff's Office was notified of the assault on December 12, 2025. The juvenile victim was forensically interviewed and evidence was collected that established probable cause for Soto's arrest.
Three coaches who were present on the bus also faced consequences. The Odem-Edroy ISD board voted 5-2 to terminate the probationary contracts of coaches Cristian Torres and Arnold Maldonado. A grand jury later indicted Nathan Wuenschel, Torres and Maldonado — each on two counts of abandoning or endangering a child, a state jail felony — for allegedly failing to protect a student during the trip.
In a January statement, Superintendent Yolanda Carr said the district continues to cooperate fully with law enforcement and the Texas Rangers, and that the investigation remains ongoing.
