SAN ANTONIO – A former San Antonio cheer coach was sentenced to 12 years in prison Thursday after pleading no contest to sexual assault of a child.
Robert Thomas Kotara, now 36, was arrested in 2020 after one of his students came forward saying he had been sexually assaulting her for years.
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On Thursday, he asked 227th District Court Judge Christine Del Prado for probation in return for his plea, but instead, she handed down the maximum sentence.
According to his original arrest warrant affidavit, the teenager said one of the assaults happened when Kotara took her to a hotel and gave her alcohol when she was supposed to be volunteering at a lock-in at the gym.
He also sexually assaulted her at his home when she was supposed to be babysitting his child.
Kotara was accused of burglarizing the gym where he worked. He pleaded no contest and is serving his sentence in that case. He was facing several other charges in the last couple of years, but court records show those charges have been dropped.