FLORESVILLE, Texas – A jury found ex-attorney Mark Benavides guilty on six counts of continuous trafficking of persons on Tuesday.
Benavides is accused of trading legal services for sex with his female clients, then recording those sexual encounters.
During the trial, San Antonio Police Department detective Manual Morales testified that police found a filing cabinet at Benavides' home containing 246 of what the detective called "pornographic DVDs" that showed Benavides having sex with women who police said were Benavides' clients.
Some of the graphic and sexually explicit videos were played for jurors. A video was so graphic that a female juror fainted as the panel left the courtroom last Tuesday.
The women testified that in addition to recordings made in a motel, Benavides also had sex with them in jury and witness rooms at the courthouse.
The trial was moved from San Antonio to Floresville at the request of Benavides’ attorneys,
The prosecution and defense rested their case Tuesday morning.
Benavides' lawyers rested after calling just one witness to the stand.
The trial was moved from San Antonio to Floresville at the request of Benavides’ attorneys, who argued that to hold the trial where some of the alleged offenses occurred would be prejudicial to Benavides.
Each continuous sex trafficking of a person charge carries between 25 to 99 years to life in prison.