AUSTIN (TX)
KWTX-10 [Waco, TX]
May 29, 2026
By Tommy Witherspoon
Prosecutor to jurors: “One day he will have to answer to God. But today he answers to the 12 of you.”
WACO, Texas (KWTX) – Former Central Texas Catholic priest Anthony Odiong, accused of having improper sexual relations with at least nine women in multiple states, was found guilty on three counts of sexual assault Friday in cases involving two women.
A 19th State District Court jury of eight women and four men deliberated two hours before finding the 57-year-old native of Nigeria guilty on one first-degree felony count and two second-degree felony counts.
Judge Thomas West will begin the punishment phase of the trial Monday morning, with the trial expected to end on Tuesday. Odiong, who will be seeking probation, has been in the McLennan County Jail for 662 days under $5.5 million bond after his arrest almost two years ago in Florida.
The disgraced priest, who ministered to parishioners in Waco, West, Louisiana, Florida and other locations, faces up to life in prison on the first charge and up to 20 years in prison on the other two counts.
The difference in the punishment ranges is because the law enhances the charge if Odiong was prohibited from marrying his victims because one was already married.
The other victim charged in the indictment was divorced.
Assistant District Attorney Liz Buice, who prosecuted the case with First Assistant Ryan Calvert, told jurors in summations Friday that Odiong exploited his most vulnerable parishioners who had turned to him for spiritual direction.
It is a crime in Texas for clergy or mental health professionals to have sex with those they are counseling.
Buice compared Odiong’s track record, which includes fathering a child with a parishioner in Luling, Louisiana, to a pedophile working as a kindergarten teacher.
“One day he will have to answer to God,” Buice told the jury. “But today he answers to the 12 of you.”
Odion’s trial began Tuesday with him facing five first-degree felony counts of sexual assault and two second-degree felony sexual assault counts involving three alleged victims.
However, as the trial progressed, the prosecutors abandoned three counts against Odiong, and were forced on Thursday to dismiss one of the three indictments against him when one of the alleged victims, who was sworn in as a witness on Tuesday, fled her home and did not show up to testify Wednesday.
Odiong, who did not testify during the first phase of the trial, was convicted of having unlawful sex with the women from 2008 to 2011. That required the state to prove there was probable cause to believe the priest had improper sex with at least five women to create an exception to the statute of limitations, which is normally 10 years in sexual assault cases.
Calvert told jurors in summations that Odiong is a sexual predator who crossed the line with his parishioners – most of whom were devout, lifelong Catholics – by taking advantage of their devotion to him as God’s messenger on earth during some of the most troubling times in their lives.
“His weapon was faith,” Calvert said. “Devout faith, sincere faith, faith that is present to this day. You have seen it with these women.”
Calvert explained that Odiong could have gone to a bar, picked up a woman and had sex with her. While that certainly would have violated his priestly oath of chaste celibacy and been unethical, it would not have been a crime.
However, he preyed on divorced, abused, depressed and critically ill women, plus a single mom trying to raise seven kids on her own, who all looked to him for spiritual guidance, Calvert said.
“When you do that, the law says you are committing sexual assault, period, the end,” Calvert said. “This case is exactly why this law exists.”
Defense attorney Carolina Truesdale told jurors Odiong did not exploit the women, who all were intelligent with minds of their own.
“Is this man a cult leader? Did he tell them what to do? I don’t think so,” she said.
Odiong and the women were in dating relationships, not one of spiritual adviser and parishioner, she argued.
“They loved him. They continued to contact him for years afterward. To me that sounds like a dating relationship,” she said.
Defense attorney Gerald Villarrial questioned why the state relied on officers, investigators and others to prove Odiong abused at least five women. He argued it was hearsay evidence and the state should have called the women as witnesses.
He said he finds it insulting to assume that Odiong exercised so much control over these women and that they didn’t have the capacity to make up their own minds about the relationship.
The women testified that Odiong was a vibrant, charismatic, intelligent priest who made them feel special and loved while they were struggling with life traumas.
ANTHONY ODIONG TESTIMONY ARTICLES:
- ‘I felt ashamed’: Waco woman who testified she had sex with Father Odiong said he justified it as ‘spiritual and holy’
- ‘We are but men,’ Father Odiong allegedly said after he was confronted about sex with parishioner in Waco