JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A former athletic trainer will spend the rest of his life behind bars for crimes he committed against children.
Julio Acosta Morgado was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty on five counts of sexual crimes.
Acosta Morgado was entrusted by parents to help their children prepare to be at peak physical form for sports, prosecutors said. In July, a jury determined that he used those relationships to sexually assault multiple boys, one was as young as 10 years old.
Young athletes who wanted to excel on the baseball field were entrusted to Acosta Morgaco. According to an arrest report, while a pair of brothers participated in a training session in Acosta Morgado's home in November of 2023, he had one boy do an exercise in one room, moved the other boy to a different room and then asked that boy to get naked for a massage. The arrest report goes on to say that Acosta Morgado performed sex acts on the child. That victim was 13 years old.
Police said during the course of their investigation into that incident, another victim came forward about inappropriate actions by Acosta Morgado after a private athletic training session in his home in 2020. That victim was just 10 years old at the time he was sexually assaulted.
Judge London Kite sentenced Acosta Morgado to spend the rest of his life inside a Florida State Prison. During the trial, Acosta Morgado's three nephews testified that he acted towards them in a similar way as the other victims when they were between the ages of nine and 15 years old.
While Acosta Morgado learned his fate inside the Duval County courthouse, there are multiple resources provided by the state and non-profits to help parents identify problematic scenarios before entrusting their children to another adult.
Services through the city of Jacksonville can be found here.
The Quigley House has a 24-hour hotline for sexual assault resources and more information can be found here.
There are multiple options throughout the state of Florida for victims of sexual assault, for more resources, visit this website.
In addition to life in prison, Julio Acosta Morgado was also designated as a sexual predator.