AUSTIN, Texas – A former Teacher of the Year in Texas will serve 16 years in prison as punishment for sexually assaulting a 6-year-old student in his class three years ago.

In 2010, John Joseph Vasquez was named Blazier Elementary School’s Teacher of the Year.

But on Wednesday, a Travis County state judged sentenced the former first-grade teacher to 16 years in prison for each of two convictions for indecency with a child by contact and improper relationship between an educator or student, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

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A jury deliberated for two hours before doling out the 16 year sentences, which are to be served concurrently. Vasquez, 45, was found guilty earlier this week and could have faced up to 20 years for each offense, according to the news site.

Jurors heard from two students during a trial last week, one of which said Vasquez touched her inappropriately before and after Christmas break in 2011. The girl, who was 6-years-old at the time, testified using the pseudonym Paula and said Vasquez kissed her stomach and molested her while she performed reading tests, the American-Statesman reports.

Vasquez was “only on trial for allegations involving Paula, but state Judge Julie Kocurek allowed another young girl to testify as a rebuttal witness for the state,” according to the news site.

“The second student also told jurors that Vasquez had abused her while in the same class and that he would call her over to give her hugs.”

The former teacher’s attorney offered a lot of excuses for his client’s behavior.

Defense lawyer Larry Sauer said Vasquez suffered at the hands of an abusive father before his parents both died as a teenager. He overcame that hardship to join the Marine Corps, gain a college degree and become a teacher.

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“Through 2010 and 2011, Vasquez was under tremendous stress, his lawyer said, as he had been working through grad school and training other teachers. Despite his anger management issues, he had been named Blazier’s 2010 teacher of the year, Sauer said. Now with the convictions, he will have to register as a sex offender for life, he said,” according to the American-Statesman.

Prosecutor Amber Platt wasn’t the least bit sympathetic to Vasquez’ situation.

“Let’s get one thing really clear — this man is a grown man,” she told the court. “He made those decisions on his own.”

Jurors acquitted him of a more serious offense of aggravated sexual assault of a child, which carried a sentence of up to life in prison.

Throughout the trial, Vasquez denied inappropriately touching his students.

Prosecutors countered that the victims had nothing to gain from sharing their stories with jurors, but Vasquez’s attorney still did his best to instill doubt about whether the girls fabricated their testimony in retaliation for his client’s tough teaching style, and were influenced by suggestive questioning by their parents and others, the American-Statesman reports.

“I know I screamed at them,” Vasquez testified. “I know that I was cruel to them as far as being a bully, but I never touched them.”