Yonatan Jose Felipe Velasquez v. State of Indiana

CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 9, 2026
Docket24A-CR-02904
StatusPublished
AuthorJudge Felix

This text of Yonatan Jose Felipe Velasquez v. State of Indiana (Yonatan Jose Felipe Velasquez v. State of Indiana) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Yonatan Jose Felipe Velasquez v. State of Indiana, (Ind. Ct. App. 2026).

Opinion

FILED Jan 09 2026, 8:46 am

CLERK Indiana Supreme Court Court of Appeals and Tax Court

IN THE

Court of Appeals of Indiana Yonatan J. Felipe Velasquez, Appellant-Defendant

v.

State of Indiana, Appellee-Plaintiff

January 9, 2026 Court of Appeals Case No. 24A-CR-2904 Appeal from the Tippecanoe Superior Court The Honorable Steven P. Meyer, Judge Trial Court Cause No. 79D02-2311-F3-000028

Opinion by Judge Felix Judges Brown and Scheele concur.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-2904 | January 9, 2026 Page 1 of 18 Felix, Judge.

Statement of the Case [1] Yonatan Felipe Velasquez was convicted of molesting J.J.-T., a child he had

met online. During Velasquez’s jury trial, he was prohibited from questioning a

witness about alleged sexual contact J.J.-T. had with another person after

Velasquez molested her, and his admissions to law enforcement were admitted

over his objection. The trial court sentenced Velasquez to 12 years—10 years of

incarceration and 2 years suspended to probation. Velasquez now appeals and

raises three issues for our review, which we revise and restate as the following

two issues:

1. Whether the trial court abused its discretion regarding certain evidence at trial; and 2. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in imposing Velasquez’s sentence.

[2] We affirm.

Facts and Procedural History [3] In late spring and early summer 2023, Velasquez was 19 years old, and J.J.-T.

was 11 years old. Sometime in March 2023, Velasquez “friended” J.J.-T. on

Instagram, Tr. Vol. II at 141, and they began messaging one another through

Instagram and Facebook Messenger. In messaging Velasquez, J.J.-T. told him

she was 11 years old; Velasquez never disclosed his age to J.J.-T.

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-2904 | January 9, 2026 Page 2 of 18 [4] In June 2023, J.J.-T. was staying with family in Lafayette, Indiana. In early

June, J.J.-T. and her 14-year-old cousin A.M. snuck out of the house at night to

meet Velasquez and another man. The two men drove J.J.-T. and A.M. to a

gas station, gave them each a stuffed animal, and then drove them home.

[5] Two weeks later, J.J.-T. and A.M. again snuck out of the house at night to meet

Velasquez and the other man. The group ended up at Murdock Park. While

there, Velasquez “was getting touchy and stuff” with J.J.-T., Tr. Vol. II at 148,

before he took her by the wrist to some nearby bushes. Once at the bushes,

Velasquez held J.J.-T. down by her wrists and lifted up her dress. J.J.-T.

“tr[ied] to get up because [she] didn’t want to do it but [she] couldn’t because

[Velasquez was] stronger.” Id. at 150. J.J.-T. told Velasquez to “stop, but he

wasn’t listening.” Id. Velasquez then removed J.J.-T.’s underwear and inserted

his penis into her vagina. This was “painful” for J.J.-T. “because that was the

first time [she had] done it.” Id. at 151. J.J.-T. continued trying to get away

from Velasquez, and she tried to scream but couldn’t “because he was covering

[her] mouth,” id. at 167. When Velasquez finally let J.J.-T. up, J.J.-T. redressed

herself and “tried to run” to A.M., but Velasquez caught her by the wrist and

“told [her] not to tell no one, not even [her] parents, not even [her] cousin.” Id.

at 152. Velasquez also warned J.J.-T. that if she told anyone, “[i]t was gonna

go worse.” Id. at 168. Velasquez and the other man then dropped J.J.-T. and

A.M. off at the family residence.

[6] J.J.-T. returned to her mother’s home in Illinois shortly thereafter. On June 23,

J.J.-T. disclosed the abuse to her mother, who had “noticed that [J.J.-T.] was

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-2904 | January 9, 2026 Page 3 of 18 walking awkwardly and that she was bleeding from her” vagina, Tr. Vol. II at

188. J.J.-T.’s mother took her to the hospital because J.J.-T. “was bleeding a

lot,” Tr. Vol. II at 156, which had started immediately after Velasquez molested

her. Alysia Owens, a sexual assault nurse examiner, performed a pediatric

sexual assault examination of J.J.-T.

[7] On July 20, Lafayette Police Department (“LPD”) Detective Kent Hesher

interviewed Velasquez at the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department’s

detective offices in Indianapolis. LPD Officer Isidro Medrano, whose “first

language” is Spanish, Tr. Vol. II at 220, helped interpret and translate during

the interview because Velasquez’s primary language is Spanish. Velasquez

agreed to speak with Detective Hesher, and he admitted to having sexual

intercourse with J.J.-T. Velasquez “stated that [J.J.-T.] was acting weird or odd

and she just kept staring at him. So, they stopped.” Tr. Vol. III at 50.

Velasquez also told Detective Hesher that he had used a condom, which “fell

off,” and when “he tried to reinsert his penis into [J.J.-T.’s] vagina without the

condom . . . it hurt and then that’s when J.[J.-T.] told him to just stop.” Id.

[8] The State charged Velasquez with child molesting as a Level 3 felony. 1 At trial,

J.J.-T. testified to the molestation as described above, Owens testified about her

examination of J.J.-T., and portions of Velasquez’s interview with law

enforcement were admitted and published. The jury found Velasquez guilty as

1 Ind. Code § 35-42-4-3(a).

Court of Appeals of Indiana | Opinion 24A-CR-2904 | January 9, 2026 Page 4 of 18 charged. The trial court sentenced Velasquez to 12 years, with 10 years of

incarceration and the remaining 2 years suspended to probation. This appeal

ensued. 2

Discussion and Decision 1. The Trial Court Did Not Err by Excluding and Admitting Certain Evidence at Trial

[9] Velasquez contends the trial court erred by excluding and admitting certain

evidence at trial. We generally review evidentiary rulings for an abuse of

discretion. Russell v. State, 234 N.E.3d 829, 858 (Ind. 2024) (quoting Conley v.

State, 972 N.E.2d 864 (Ind. 2012)), cert. denied, 145 S.Ct. 424 (2024). “[W]e

may affirm the trial court’s decision on any basis supported by the record,”

Means v. State, 201 N.E.3d 1158, 1163 (Ind. 2023) (citing Ramirez v. State, 174

N.E.3d 181, 190 n.2 (Ind. 2021)), and we will reverse “only where the decision

2 We remind Velasquez’s counsel that pursuant to Indiana Appellate Rule 50(B)(1)(a), the appellant’s Appendix in a criminal case must include the entire Clerk’s Record, not just a selection of materials therefrom. See Ind. Appellate Rule 2(E) (“The Clerk’s Record is the Record maintained by the clerk of the trial court . . . and shall consist of the Chronological Case Summary (CCS) and all papers, pleadings, documents, orders, judgments, and other materials filed in the trial court . . . or listed in the CCS.” (Emphases added)). To the extent necessary and pursuant to Appellate Rule 27 and Indiana Evidence Rule 201, we have taken judicial notice of the Clerk’s Record in this case. See Horton v. State, 51 N.E.3d 1154, 1156 (Ind. 2016) (taking judicial notice under Evidence Rule 201 of documents that were part of the Record on Appeal as defined in Appellate Rule 27). We also note that a confidential version of the transcript was not filed with this court despite portions thereof being deemed not for public access pursuant to Indiana Access to Court Records Rule 5(C).

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