The Black Collar Crime Series relies on public news stories and publicly available information for its content. If any incorrect information is found, please contact Bruce Gerencser. Nothing in this post should be construed as an accusation of guilt. Those accused of crimes are innocent until proven guilty.
Abraham Jatnel Coronado, a youth leader with a La Luz Del Mundo affiliated church in Redlands, California, and oversaw an off-site church property known as Ebenezer Ranch, was found guilty of thirteen counts of sexually abusing minor church members and sentenced to life in prison. La Luz Del Mundo is a non-trinitarian, charismatic organization.
A youth leader at a notorious church in Redlands has been sentenced to 175 years to life in prison for sexually abusing three young members of the congregation.
Abraham Jatnel Coronado was found guilty last Friday of 13 felony counts of sexual abuse against the young church members.
Coronado was a youth leader at a La Luz Del Mundo church in Redlands and oversaw an off-site church property known as Ebenezer Ranch.
According to the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, Coronado was often left in charge of children without parental supervision and the children would often spend the night in his trailer located on the ranch.
Coronado, the DA’s Office said, was “well respected and known to have a close relationship with the Church headquarters’ main leaders.”
For several years, Coronado used his position to prey on young boys in his care, prosecutors said. The victims ranged in age from 12 to 17.
The first victim to come forward was abused by the church leader when he was a teenager. He testified during the trial that Coronado repeatedly sexually abused him, and in a recorded conversation between the two, Coronado never denied the abuse and said he “wanted this [sex] to happen.”
The first victim reported the abuse in 2021 after seeing Coronado taking another young victim under his wing, concerned that he would continue to victimize other children at the ranch.
The second victim testified that Coronado groomed him from a young age to “become his boyfriend” and would often isolate the child from other children at the ranch. The victim testified to experiencing “many acts” of sexual abuse at the hands of Coronado that began when around 2010 when he was only 13. When he turned 14, Coronado became more forceful and raped the child, he testified.
A third victim testified that Coronado would “slap his buttocks, rub his chest, and rub his pelvis against him in a sexual manner” when he was between the ages of 12 and 13. The victim said he’d never experienced an adult behaving like that toward him.
Coronado eventually admitted to the sexual abuse of the children, acknowledging he was aware of their age at the time and his position of power over them. In an apology letter written to his victims, Coronado said he was sorry that his “stupidity” caused them such “suffering and humiliation.”
La Luz Del Mundo is a controversial megachurch headquartered in Mexico that has been mired in allegations of sex abuse perpetrated by church leaders. In 2019, Naasón Joaquín García, the religious organization’s main leader and a self-proclaimed apostle of Jesus, was arrested at LAX and eventually pleaded guilty to charges of sexual abuse of a child.
He is currently serving a 17-year prison sentence for those crimes at the California Institution for Men in Chino
Last year, García was indicted for allegedly possessing child pornography on his tablet, which was found during his arrest at LAX.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and sixteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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