WACO (TX)
KWTX-10 [Waco, TX]
April 14, 2026
By Tommy Witherspoon
A McLennan County judge granted a defense request Tuesday to postpone the sexual assault trial of disgraced Central Texas Catholic priest Anthony Odiong while he approved a state request to consolidate the cases of three of Odiong’s alleged victims into one trial.
Odiong, 57, who was set for trial in 19th State District Court on May 4, has been in the McLennan County Jail in lieu of $5.5 million bond for 617 days. Despite that delay, his attorney, Gerald Villarrial, sought a delay in his trial, telling Judge Thomas West during a hearing Tuesday that the voluminous information gathered in the investigation is the most he has seen during his 32 years as an attorney.
West, who had given the case a priority setting for May 4, granted the defense’s request and scheduled jury selection to begin on May 23, with testimony to kick off May 26 following the Memorial Day holiday.
Odiong formerly was named in three separate indictments charging him with a total of seven counts of sexual assault that involve three alleged victims. West granted a motion from prosecutors Ryan Calvert and Liz Buice to consolidate those three cases into one trial under a law that allows two or more offenses that are connected or constitute a common scheme or plan to be joined.
Odiong, a former priest in West, Louisiana and Florida, is charged with “exploiting his parishioners’ emotional dependency upon him as a spiritual adviser and engaging in sexual conduct with them,” according to court documents. At least nine women have come forward, including one who told authorities Odiong fathered her child.
That claim was confirmed through DNA testing, officials have said.
In requesting the trial delay, Villarrial told the judge he and his staff have had recent trouble opening files sent over by the DA’s office, although he made it clear it was through no fault of the prosecutors’ office.
Villarrial said he feared he and his team would be unable to sift through all the information before the May 4 trial date, which he said could expose him to an ineffective assistance of counsel claim on appeal should Odiong be convicted.
Calvert strenuously objected to the delay, telling the judge that the case has been a logistical nightmare for his office trying to schedule travel plans for witnesses scattered across the country in at least seven states.
He said the alleged victims have been waiting for their day in court and are eager to put the episode behind them. Calvert said the delay would constitute an injustice for the victims.
West also approved a request from Calvert to submit a questionnaire to potential jurors in the case, designed, in part, to gauge their religious preferences.
West will summon 100 potential jurors, about 40 more than normal, because of the high-profile nature of the case.
If convicted, Odiong faces up to life in prison on the first-degree felony charges and up to 20 years on the second-degree felony charges.
Sexual assault normally is a second-degree felony. However, it bumps up to first-degree status if a defendant is prohibited under the bigamy statute from marrying the victim. Some of Odiong’s alleged victims are married.