Wilke's Office Wins Max on 16 of 17 Counts; Former Harper Band Assistant Gets 15 Years
HARPER, Texas — A former Harper ISD band assistant who secretly recorded 10 girls, nine of them in a theater dressing room at Harper High School, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison after the 216th District Attorney's Office secured guilty pleas on every charge against him.
Pedro De Luna III pleaded guilty to all 17 felony counts brought by District Attorney Lucy Wilke's office and was sentenced Sept. 3 to 15 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The Sentence
A grand jury indicted De Luna in March 2026 on 17 felony charges:
- 12 counts – Invasive Visual Recording of a Bath/Dressing Room
- 3 counts – Possession of Lewd Visual Material Depicting a Child
- 1 count – Tampering with or Fabricating Physical Evidence with Intent to Impair
- 1 count – Possession of Child Pornography, More Than 50 Visual Depictions (first-degree felony)
Wilke's office obtained the maximum sentence on 16 of the 17 counts: two years on each state jail felony and 10 years on the third-degree felony. On the first-degree charge, which carries up to life in prison, De Luna received 15 years. The sentences run concurrently.
Each of the 12 invasive recording counts carried a maximum of two years, the ceiling for a state jail felony, no matter the age of the victim. Wilke said she is working to change that.
"I am working with legislators to increase the penalties in Invasive Visual Recording cases based on age of the victim," Wilke said. "Right now, regardless of age of the victim, the offense is a State Jail Felony, which is the lowest level felony. My office is seeking to increase penalties based on the age of the victim and for offenses committed in schools or daycare centers."
How It Started
On Nov. 8, 2025, Gillespie County sheriff's investigators were notified that De Luna had recorded a 15-year-old girl in the bathroom of his Harper home. The girl had been invited to the home with her family, found a partially hidden cell phone recording in the bathroom, and told her mother, who called authorities.
Investigators analyzed De Luna's phone, collected evidence and obtained a warrant charging him with invasive visual recording. Harper ISD placed him on administrative leave, and he resigned Nov. 10. He was arrested Dec. 1 with bond set at $50,000.
Nine More Victims
A search warrant for De Luna's home turned up numerous digital devices, which were sent for forensic analysis. Investigators found recordings in his cloud storage from a theater dressing and changing room at Harper High School, where he worked.
Sheriff Chris Ayala personally re-arrested De Luna on Dec. 5 on six additional warrants. As the investigation continued, the victim count reached 10, and investigators recovered more than 50 photos and videos of child sexual abuse material.
De Luna tried to delete and hide evidence to avoid prosecution. Investigators recovered the deleted data, uncovered additional evidence, and added the tampering charge.
Who Made the Case
The conviction took three agencies:
- Gillespie County Sheriff's Office investigators built the case from a single report to 10 identified victims, recovering the evidence De Luna tried to destroy.
- The sheriff's evidence technician worked alongside investigators to catalog evidence, identify and organize the abuse material, and assist in interviewing victims.
- The Kerr County Digital Forensics Lab assisted the investigation.
- The 216th District Attorney's Office, prosecutors and investigators alike, took the case to a 17-count indictment and guilty pleas on every count.
The Victims Faced Him
The case also took the victims themselves. Several delivered impact statements directly to De Luna in court, telling him what his actions had cost them and the trust he had broken.
"They with a great amount of courage were able to prove they were willing to stand up and face him," the sheriff's office said.
