An illegal immigrant convicted of raping and impregnating a 9-year-old girl in Ohio was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday.
Gerson Fuentes, 28, who has been living in the U.S. illegally since immigrating from Guatemala, was arrested last year on rape charges, WOSU reported. The girl’s story made national news after an Indiana abortion doctor told the Indianapolis Star that a child abuse doctor in Ohio had referred the girl to her because Ohio law wouldn’t allow the young girl to get an abortion. Ohio Attorney General David Yost, when previously expressing skepticism about the story, said that if the girl had become pregnant, Ohio law would not prevent her from having an abortion.
Fuentes did not speak during sentencing other than to say he understood the implications of him changing his previous not guilty plea to guilty while in court. Franklin County Judge Julie Lynch did not comment during sentencing, saying the victim’s family asked her not to, even though that was a “hard pill to swallow.”
“The family has agreed to this. And this is a hard pill for this court to swallow to take this joint recommendation. If that family hadn’t begged me to take this joint recommendation, this would never be happening,” Lynch said.
Fuentes’ sentence came with the possibility of parole after 25 years. Lynch twice emphasized the word “possibility” before saying she considered what Fuentes did to be the worst type of offense.
“Anybody who has ever been in this courtroom for the last 20 years knows how this court feels about babies, young people being violated,” Lynch said, according to WOSU.
Assistant Franklin County Prosecutor Daniel Lenert explained in court that the victim went to her primary care doctor on June 22, 2022, and was given a pregnancy test, which came back positive. The girl was then taken for a forensic exam but would not say who raped her. It was determined that she was six weeks and four days into her pregnancy, meaning the assault would have occurred when she was 9 years old.
The victim was taken to Dr. Caitlin Bernard in Indianapolis for an abortion on July 1, 2022, and the aborted fetus was collected for DNA analysis. It was after this that Bernard publicly revealed the case, which has earned her a $3,000 fine and issued a letter of reprimand for violating patient privacy laws.
Assistant DA Lenert said a few days after the abortion, Columbus police went to the victim’s home and obtained DNA samples from multiple men living in the house. The DNA matched Fuentes, who admitted to raping the young girl twice.
Fuentes faces deportation if he is ever granted parole, and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
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