Daniel Savala, a 70-year-old itinerant minister and a convicted sex offender who once had ties to the Chi Alpha Campus Ministries sponsored by the Assemblies of God, was sentenced by a Texas judge to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to sexually abusing two boys on Thursday.
“I don’t expect he will ever see the light of day again,” McLennan County District Attorney Josh Tetens announced in a statement. “And that is justice in this case.”
According to Tetens, “Continuous Human Trafficking is one of a few crimes in Texas that does not allow the possibility of parole,” so Savala will have to serve the full 30 years in prison.
Savala was arrested on the abuse charges in Waco, Texas, in June 2023.
The fallen minister, according to KWTX, was identified as the “spiritual mentor” of the former leader of Chi Alpha’s ministry at Baylor University, Christopher Hundl, now 41. Hundl was charged with allowing Savala to sexually abuse two of his family members, The Waco Tribune-Herald reported.
According to the arrest warrant, Hundl allegedly brought the two boys to Savala’s Houston home several times between the summer of 2021 and March 2022. Texas’ sex offender registry records show that Savala was charged in 2012 for sexual abuse of a minor, a third-degree felony, which he committed in Alaska between 1995 and 1997.
Hundl, who was married at the time the crimes occurred, told officers that he met Savala while in college and was involved in a sexual relationship with him. Savala, he told police, acted as a “grandfather” to the two boys.
Whistleblowers allege that Savala was allowed by some ministry leaders to prey on young men and boys for years.
Chi Alpha is a campus ministry on approximately 300 campuses worldwide, supported by the Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States.
Officials from the denomination previously shared in a statement that Savala was never on staff with Chi Alpha. The denomination further noted that it took action to cut ties with him as soon as they learned of his sex offender status, a claim that whistleblowers dispute.
“We are heartbroken to hear allegations related to Daniel Savala and the pain his reported actions caused. The Assemblies of God strongly opposes the teachings and practices he seems to have endorsed,” the denomination stressed in its statement.
“While he did not hold credentials with the Assemblies of God and was never on staff within Chi Alpha Campus Ministries, The General Council of the Assemblies of God takes matters of this nature seriously and will do everything we can to help.”
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