On Jan. 4, the San Patricio County Sheriff’s Office arrested a teenager in connection with an assault that occurred on an Oldham-Edroy Independent School District bus in early December 2025.
According to San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera, 19-year-old Christopher Jacob Soto was arrested at 6:13 p.m.
He was being held at the San Patricio County Jail on $75,000 bail, which was posted the next day, Rivera said.
Soto was charged with child molestation, a second-degree felony in Texas.
San Patricio County Sheriff Oscar Rivera said the arrest stems from an incident that occurred on Dec. 9, 2025, when law enforcement accused Soto of assaulting a 15-year-old Oldham-Edroy Independent School District student as the youths were riding a bus home from a basketball game in Hebbronville.
Both students attended Oldham High School.
Three days later, San Patricio County Sheriff’s deputies working at Oldham-Edroy High School were notified of the incident. They began investigating, interviewing the boy who said he had been attacked, as well as several witnesses, and gathering evidence.
While law enforcement has not released details of what happened on the school bus that may have led to the attack, Rivera said the bus was packed with children ages 15 to 18 who were playing in the back of the bus when the game got out of hand.
Rivera said the case is far from over and the San Patricio County District Attorney’s Office expects to make more arrests as the office reviews statements and evidence.
“We are confident that he did not act alone, but the others involved were minors,” Rivera said. “There are kids involved, playing, and their involvement plays a big part in it.”
He said he didn’t know how many people were involved and that it was an unusual case.
“We do not take cases like this lightly,” Rivera said. “We started asking questions because this was no joke. Things got out of hand – a little game got out of hand very quickly – and this behavior will not be tolerated.”
Odem-Edroy ISD did not immediately respond to a Jan. 7 request for comment.
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This article originally appeared in Corpus Christi Caller-Times: Oldham student charged with child molestation, sheriff says