Special to The News

A Beaumont man was sentenced to 15 years in state custody Monday for indecency with a child by exposure, a third-degree felony.

The Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office said Judge John Stevens sentenced Juan Manuel Alameda Fernandez, 57, convicted in March.

Fernandez was found guilty by a jury in a case in which he was accused of exposing himself last June from a window to two girls, 9 and 12, who were attempting to catch stray cats in their yard.

They heard Fernandez call to them from inside his bedroom window. When the girls looked, they saw Fernandez naked, masturbating and making eye contact with them. The children then told their neighbor, who immediately notified the victims’ parents and law enforcement.

The victims were forensically interviewed at The Garth House in Beaumont, and provided consistent details about the incident.

Upon investigation, it was revealed that Fernandez had previously offered the victims food and jewelry. Fernandez had also asked one of the girls to call him and provided her a note with his phone number.

A grand jury indicted Fernandez on Aug. 8; the case was tried in the Criminal District Court of Jefferson County. The jury convicted Fernandez after 10 minutes of deliberation.

Detective Charles Duchamp of the Beaumont Police Department investigated the case and Assistant District Attorney Tatiana Zelezniak of the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office was the prosecutor.

The range of punishment for the offense of Indecency with a Child by Exposure is a minimum of two and a maximum of 10 years in the Institutional Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Fernandez’s prior drug-related felony conviction was expected to increase his range of punishment up to

20 years.