Thermal soccer coach who sexually abused girls sentenced
City News Service
BANNING, Calif. (KESQ) – A former Coachella Valley girls soccer coach who molested and propositioned multiple students was sentenced today to 61 years, four months in state prison.
A Banning jury in October convicted 30-year-old Juan Manuel Pantoja Troncoso of Salton City of three counts each of forcible lewd acts on a child and contacting a minor for the purpose of perpetrating a sexual offense, four counts of annoying a child and one count of battery, with sentence-enhancing allegations of targeting multiple victims.
During a hearing at the Banning Justice Center Thursday, Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark Singerton denied a defense motion for new trial and proceeded with imposing the sentence required under state law on Troncoso, 30, who had no prior felony convictions.
Deputy District Attorney Thomas Farnell rendered a detailed account of the five victims’ recollections of what occurred during their interactions with the defendant, when he was one of the lead athletics coaches in the After-School Education & Safety Program at Toro Canyon Middle School in Thermal in 2019.
The campus’ principal soccer coach, Javier Perez, said some of the girls refused to take to the field unless he was present, fearing Troncoso’s behavior. Middle school teacher Maria Sylva testified the defendant liked “12 to 14-year-old girls. That’s his type.”
Defense attorney Melanie Roe countered that most of the witnesses were negatively influenced by Sylva, who bore unexplained animosity toward Troncoso and had spoken with the girls before they went to authorities.
“Sylva contaminated the memories of these girls,” Roe told jurors. “She had a mean-spirited intent.”
She said the victims, now in their late teens, had ideas planted by Sylva, including the use of words such as “uncomfortable” and “inappropriate,” which students in their early teens wouldn’t normally convey unless an adult, in this case an educator, had steered them toward such terms.
As to whether her client had made casual observations or offered supportive hugs to the youths, Roe questioned where the line was drawn between criminal offense and friendly chat.
She praised Troncoso’s character, pointing out he was holding down three jobs to support his family at the time of his arrest in 2020.
The defendant was dismissed by the Coachella Valley Unified School District in the winter of 2020.