Austin man avoids prison time, gets 10 years of community supervision in sexual assault case

FIRST ON FOX: An Austin man who was found in possession of a bag of female underwear that authorities called “trophies” after he broke into a home and sexually assaulted a woman in July 2019 was able to avoid prison time by pleading guilty to burglary with intent to commit sexual assault earlier this year, according to documents obtained by Fox News Digital. 

Ivan Wallace, 61, was sentenced to 10 years of community supervision and required to register as a sex offender, according to the plea. 

He was originally arrested on Sept. 27, 2019, at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on a warrant for the July sexual assault. 

A woman, who authorities identified by the pseudonym Zoe, woke up at 4:00 a.m. on July 27, 2019, while sleeping at a friend’s house in east Austin to a man, identified in the warrant as Wallace, penetrating her with his fingers, according to the affidavit for his arrest. 

He “slid back off the bed and stood up while maintaining eye contact with” the victim, then walked “calmly and slowly” out of the room and through the back door. The victim then woke up her friend to tell her about the incident and describe the suspect. 

Zoe set up a motion-activated Ring camera on her back friend’s porch in the aftermath of the incident. Roughly three weeks later on Aug. 20, 2019, the suspect was back. 

“The motion was caused from movement by the suspect who had crept up onto the back porch of the victim’s residence and was approaching the back door as if to open it,” the affidavit says. The man left the home in a “creeper style walk” after the camera’s sensor light activated. 

Two days later, Zoe identified Wallace in a sequential lineup as the man who sexually assaulted her. 

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Detectives from the Austin Police Department executed a search warrant at Wallace’s home on Sept. 18 and found a pair of glasses that belonged to Zoe and had been stolen on the night she was assaulted. 

“A trash bag filled with women’s under garments had been found amongst items belonging to the suspect,” the affidavit says. “The search warrant that had been executed included items taken as possible trophies of crimes, as the glasses are considered. The women’s clothing is described as being eleven pairs of women’s panties [and] eight women’s braziers (sic).”

Wallace was taken into custody by U.S. Marshals at the airport about a week later on Sept. 26, 2019. He was released on bond on March 1, 2021. 

  

In January of this year, Wallace agreed with Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza’s office to plead guilty to burglary with intent to commit sexual assault, a first-degree felony, instead of sexual assault. 

A judge sentenced Wallace to 10 years of deferred adjudication community supervision and ordered him to register as a sex offender. 

Wallace and an attorney listed in court records did not return requests for comment on Thursday.