By Linhchi Nguyen
WOODLAND – After weeks of graphic, sometimes lurid, testimony, a Yolo County jury has found 43-year-old softball coach “Buck” Maldonado Thomas guilty of sexually abusing underaged athletes under his training program.
The jury took less than two days, following more than three weeks of victims describing Thomas’ attacks, to convict Thomas of multiple crimes—including forcible sexual assault of a minor, first-degree burglary, and sexual battery on a minor.
Indeed, Thomas was known for his “unconventional” teaching style and college placement program, which attracted many parents and players to sign up for his training in the hopes of the students qualifying for collegiate teams.
In November 2018, the first minor victim came forward about Thomas sexually assaulting her in her West Sacramento home. Her family had hired Thomas as a private hitting coach after she met him at a softball tournament in Orange County.
Things took a turn when Thomas took the victim to her bedroom one day to assist her in stretching. Despite the victim telling her parents that she felt “uncomfortable,” Thomas continued 
training the victim for awhile until her father confronted him through text.
The West Sacramento Police Department then opened an investigation and learned of a second victim, 16 years old, who trained with Thomas in August in both West Sacramento and Arizona.
These victims were interviewed at the Yolo County Multi-Disciplinary Interview Center, where underage victims of sexual abuse are interviewed by forensically trained experts.
Detectives report a search of Thomas’ internet search history “found a lot of searches related to massage room porn which were associated with well-known pornography websites.” Some of the links for the videos included “massage rooms and massage salons” and “legal pornography related to the teenage years.”
Two more athletes from Arizona and one from Nevada learned of Thomas’ arrest in the news and gave investigators further information about Thomas. In trial, these victims testified to Thomas’s inappropriate behavior from rubbing their thighs and other private places, to sending sexual text messages, to inquiring of them about their virginity.
However, during Thomas’s direct examination, he repeatedly testified that he never touched any of the players inappropriately nor forced them to engage in any sexual behavior with him. He also claimed that some of his “flirty” messages with his players were intended to build rapport.
“Mr. Thomas used his notoriety as a hitting coach to gain the trust of the parents and the minor victims in order to accomplish his sexual assaults,” said District Attorney Jeff Reisig in a press release. “We are grateful this trial gave these brave victims a voice and glad that the jury did justice in this case.”
After all the witnesses testified in trial, the jury took one and a half days to deliberate before reaching their verdict, according to the DA’s release.
Thomas will be sentenced by Judge Paul Richardson on Oct. 30 in Yolo County Superior Court and may face a maximum sentence of life in state prison.
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