A registered nurse and former church volunteer from Universal City, Texas, is facing felony charges after authorities revealed that he confessed to sexually abusing his infant child and purportedly disclosed sexually assaulting unconscious hospital patients under his care.
The defendant, identified in court records as 32-year-old Jesse Daniel Skaggs, was taken into custody following an investigation by local law enforcement. A Bexar County magistrate officially authorized an arrest warrant charging him with indecency with a child by sexual contact, which constitutes a second-degree felony under Texas law. Skaggs was subsequently booked into the Bexar County jail, where he was being detained on a $125,000 bond.
The investigation began to unfold on Monday evening when the suspect's wife reached out to the Universal City Police Department to report troubling disclosures her husband had made earlier that morning. According to a sworn arrest affidavit filed by investigators, the woman reported that Skaggs initiated a telephone conversation with her at approximately 2 a.m., during which he acknowledged engaging in illicit sexual contact with their infant son.
Law enforcement documents indicate that the alleged assault against the infant took place in January 2025, when the child was roughly six months old. The boy has since reached 2 years of age. During the conversation with his wife, Skaggs reportedly admitted to placing the baby's hands onto his erect genitalia while in their home, an account that formed the primary evidentiary basis for his immediate felony charge.
Universal City police officers initially dispatched to the family residence on Monday evening conducted an interview with Skaggs' wife regarding the initial disclosure. Later that night, shortly after 10 p.m., the woman reached out to the police department a second time to alert authorities that Skaggs had contacted her again, stating that he intended to surrender himself to law enforcement.
Officers located Skaggs and transported him to the Universal City Police Department headquarters for formal questioning. According to an arrest affidavit prepared by Detective Corporal Kabir Bhakta, Skaggs agreed to be interviewed by law enforcement after being formally advised of his constitutional rights, including his right to remain silent and his right to legal representation. Bhakta documented that the suspect explicitly expressed a desire to confess to deviant sexual offenses he had carried out.
Beyond the abuse involving his child, the arrest affidavit outlines disturbing allegations regarding Skaggs' actions during his professional nursing career. The suspect's wife told investigators that during their phone discussion, Skaggs confessed to having sexually assaulted two separate unconscious patients while performing his medical duties as a registered nurse in a hospital setting.
The arrest documents did not identify the specific medical facilities where these alleged assaults took place, nor did they clarify whether law enforcement agencies have initiated an official criminal inquiry into the hospital encounters. As of the time of the initial filing, Skaggs had not been formally charged with criminal counts in connection with the claims involving medical patients, and the Universal City Police Department had not provided formal comment on the scope of the ongoing probe.
State regulatory records maintained by the Texas Board of Nursing show that Skaggs has maintained professional credentials in the state for nearly a decade. He originally earned credentials as a licensed practical nurse in 2016 before advancing his career to become a registered nurse in 2020. Both nursing licenses were reissued in May and are documented as remaining officially active through May 31, 2028.
Acquaintances and a local church pastor acquainted with the defendant reported that Skaggs had previously served in the United States Army and held nursing positions at major healthcare facilities in the region, including Brooke Army Medical Center and Northeast Baptist Hospital. Neither medical center responded to inquiries regarding his employment history or the allegations.
A former patient treated at Northeast Baptist Hospital came forward to recount an encounter with Skaggs that left her unsettled. Sarah Richards, a 41-year-old resident of Northeast San Antonio, stated that Skaggs served as one of the medical personnel assigned to her care in the intensive care unit approximately three years ago, when she was admitted for a week due to severe medical complications stemming from diabetes.
Richards stated that while she was confined to her hospital bed, Skaggs entered her room and persistently offered to assist her with changing out of her clothing. Despite her repeated statements that she preferred to wait for her husband to arrive to assist her, Skaggs continued to press the issue. The persistent offers caused Richards enough distress that she alerted another nursing staff member that she felt uncomfortable and did not want Skaggs involved in her ongoing care.
Despite her formal request to have him removed from her medical rotation, Richards recalled that Skaggs was nevertheless the healthcare worker assigned to wheel her out of the hospital in a wheelchair when she was discharged. During that escort, Richards stated that Skaggs began rubbing her shoulders, an unprompted physical interaction that made her deeply uneasy, before providing her with his surname and suggesting she research him online.
The revelations have cast a harsh spotlight on patient safety and the oversight processes within medical institutions where vulnerable individuals receive intensive care. Formal requests for comment submitted to Skaggs, the Universal City Police Department, the Texas Board of Nursing, and the healthcare institutions where he was previously affiliated did not receive immediate responses.
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