Pharmacist sentenced to more than 16 years for enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity

McALLEN, TEXAS (ValleyCentral) — A pharmacist was sentenced to more than 16 years in prison Thursday for enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity.

In 2022, a teenager started chatting with Luis Fabian Vela, 62, of McAllen on WhatsApp.

The teenager — a 15-year-old girl — told Vela that she was 16 years old. He started paying her for pornographic photos.

“I made the biggest mistake of my life answering that text,” Vela said Thursday morning, when he appeared before a judge for sentencing.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Devin V. Walker, however, said Vela didn’t make a mistake.

After the 15-year-old girl contacted him, Vela steered the conversation to sexual topics, asked her to send him pornographic photos and sent her money through Cash App.

Vela asked the girl about her age, Walker said, and kept talking with her after confirming that she was under 18 years old.

“He’s setting the tee up for an actual sexual encounter with this child,” Walker said.

Vela is part of a prominent McAllen family.

His brother, Danny, served on the McAllen school board for more than a decade. His sister, Veronica, served on the McAllen City Commission and ran for mayor in 2021.

“It is a huge shock to me (sic) learn of my brother’s accusations,” Vela’s sister, Veronica, wrote in a letter dated Jan. 12, 2023. “He has always been a productive citizen, being engaged in (sic) with his community, church and family not causing any trouble that would put our family’s name at risk. He is a respected member of our community and known by many people for his strong ethical character.”

Vela worked at Lee’s Pharmacy in McAllen “until he was laid off during the pandemic,” according to a sentencing memo filed by his attorney. Vela also runs Birdie Bistro, a popular McAllen restaurant.

At some point, Vela joined a website that claims to connect successful men with attractive women. Vela started exchanging messages with someone he apparently believed was an adult woman.

That person was actually a teenager, according to the sentencing memo. She provided Vela’s contact information to a 15-year-old friend.

Documents filed in the case refer to the 15-year-old as “MV” — an acronym for “Minor Victim.”

MV contacted Vela and claimed that she was 16 years old.

Vela sent her money through Cash App. MV sent him sexually explicit photos.

“I looked up the age of consent yesterday and you can legally have sex at the age (sic) at 17,” Vela wrote to MV, according to the sentencing memo. “Have you turned 17 yet?”

The messages stopped after MV’s sister took her phone away.

“MV’s sister saw that she was messaging a man, Fabian Vela, on her phone and sending him photos she got from Google and photos of herself to him for money,” according to the sentencing memo. “She was using the WhatsApp application. MV’s sister took her phone away which caused her to complain at school.”

The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo Independent School District “received information” about the case in 2022, according to the criminal complaint against Vela, which resulted in a federal investigation.

Agents with Homeland Security Investigations, which is part of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, questioned Vela in January 2023.

Vela admitted that he paid MV for “sexually explicit images,” according to the criminal complaint, and kept nude photos of her in a hidden album on his phone.

After his arrest, more than a dozen people wrote letters on Vela’s behalf.

“The Vela Family is a pillar of McAllen and many contributions have been made on their behalf; he is well respected, well known, and I personally find it very hard to accept the accusations,” wrote a doctor who treated Vela’s wife and delivered his four children. “It is totally out of character for him.”

Vela pleaded guilty in October 2023.

“Without betraying confidentiality, I am confident that he is remorseful of his faults committed in the past,” Monsignor Gustavo Barrera, a Catholic priest, wrote in a letter dated Dec. 23, 2023. “My heart goes out to him as he tries to focus on his family, which has always been his priority.”

On Thursday morning, when Vela returned to court for sentencing, more than 20 people showed up to support him.

Attorney Cynthia Orr of San Antonio, who represented Vela, said her client was a devoted husband and father.

Vela served the community by volunteering his time and donating money to charitable causes. Vela supported his wife during her two-decade battle with cancer. And Vela cared for his special-needs children without complaint.

In 2022, while suffering from sleep deprivation, Vela made bad decisions during “a brief one-week period in his life,” Orr said.

Walker, the federal prosecutor, described the case differently.

“This was not a one-time thing,” Walker said, adding that Vela talked with the girl for days.

Vela knew the girl was younger than 18 years old, Walker said, and he asked her to take pornographic photos anyway.

“We are not here because this girl contacted him,” Walker said.

U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez said Vela asked the girl if she’d ever seen a man’s penis and offered to buy her a car.

“Knowing that she is 16,” Alvarez said, “you continued down this path.”

Vela, who read from a prepared statement, apologized to his children and the teenager.

“I take full responsibility,” Vela said, adding that what he’d done “was not of my character.”

Guidelines from the U.S. Sentencing Commission recommended a sentence of 262 to 327 months.

After reviewing all the facts, Alvarez settled on a sentence of 195 months — 16 years and three months — in prison.