HOPE, Ark.–A Texarkana man accused of molesting Arkansas children for years was charged with felony sex crimes last week in Hempstead County, adding to charges he already faced in Nevada and Sevier Counties and bringing the total number of alleged victims to six.
Alejandro Mendoza, 35, is accused of sexually abusing and exploiting children for multiple years with the periods of abuse for some of the alleged victims overlapping, court records show.
Mendoza has been formally charged in Nevada County in connection with two alleged victims. A Sept. 13 statement from the Arkansas Dept. of Public Safety said that Mendoza gained access to children through service as a volunteer coach and that he exchanged sexually explicit photos with minors he sexually abused.
A note on a first appearance document dated Sept. 11 in Mendoza’s case in Nevada County from Circuit Judge Duncan Culpepper bans Mendoza from the campus of a school in Hope, Ark., which is in Hempstead County, and forbids him from attending any off-campus extracurricular events in any location.
In Nevada County, a charge of engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium alleges that Mendoza abused a child from June 1 to Aug. 15, 2024, court records show.
In the case of a second child in Nevada County, Mendoza is charged with engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium, rape and internet stalking of a child where a meeting did take place. Those offenses allegedly occurred from April 11, 2023, to Sept. 23, 2023.
In Sevier County, Mendoza faces charges of internet stalking of a child and engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium in connection with one alleged victim. The misconduct allegedly occurred from 2022 to 2024, according to records.
In Hempstead County, where charges were formally filed last week, Mendoza is accused of misconduct with three children and is charged with three counts of engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or print medium. The dates of alleged misconduct with one of the Hempstead County children spans from June 1, 2024, to Aug. 31, 2024. Mendoza allegedly abused the second Hempstead County victim from March 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2024 and he allegedly abused the third child from Oct. 1, 2023, to July 31, 2024, according to court documents.
Earlier statements from the Arkansas Dept. of Public Safety indicate that Mendoza sexually assaulted a girl he met when she was 12.
The rape charge pending against Mendoza in Nevada County is punishable by 25 to 99 years or life in prison, if there is a conviction. If found guilty of each of the other eight felony charges pending in Nevada, Sevier and Hempstead Counties, Mendoza faces 10 to 40 years or life in prison.
Bond for Mendoza in Nevada County has been set at $2 million, at $250,000 in Sevier County and at $2 million in Hempstead County.
Mendoza is currently being held in the Nevada County jail. He is scheduled to appear in Nevada County circuit court in April.
