Man free after decades in prison for child sex abuse prosecutors say never happened

AUSTIN, Texas - A Travis County man is free after spending more than 20 years in prison for a crime prosecutors now say never happened.

For more than two decades, Marshall Moreno sat in a Texas prison, convicted of sexually assaulting his own child.

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What they're saying:

The Travis County District Attorney’s Office is now saying he is actually innocent, and they’re working to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

"We have put in new processes here and now to make sure that our prosecutors aren't securing convictions of people who are actually innocent or so that we don't have processes that deny people's constitutional rights," Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza said.

Moreno was charged in 2002 after his daughter made an outcry to her therapist. She testified at trial at just 12 years old, telling jurors her father abused her years earlier.

Marshall Moreno (Travis County Jail)

"The primary evidence in the case was the testimony of the victim. There was otherwise scant physical evidence," Garza said.

In 2003, Moreno was convicted and sentenced to 36 years in prison. Nearly 20 years later, the now-adult daughter reached out to the University of Texas Actual Innocence Clinic and said her testimony was not true. The DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit took the case.

"That separate team reviews the filings, reviews the evidence at hand and really has a goal of testing the conviction and making sure that people who are innocent aren't sitting in prison," Garza said.

In a rare move, they asked a judge to declare Moreno actually innocent.

"In 2025, it was only one of two cases in which the Court of Criminal Appeals overturned a case on the basis of actual innocence," Garza said.

Moreno has since been released from custody.

"It was incredibly significant for Mr. Moreno, who had spent far too long in prison for a crime he did not commit, and we were grateful that because of this process he was able to be home for the holidays this year," Garza said.