The 28-year-old illegal immigrant who raped and impregnated the nine-year-old whose mother he was living with in Ohio has been sentenced to life in prison.
The girl’s story made national headlines after the Indiana doctor who performed her abortion cited the incident while critiquing the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal Roe V. Wade on June 24, 2022. Her mother had defended Fuentes.
Gerson Fuentes appeared in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in Columbus on July 5 and pleaded guilty to two counts of rape. As part of his plea deal, he will go before the parole board after serving 25 to 30 years.
He confessed to raping the minor on at least two occasions while speaking to the Columbus police. The girl confirmed Fuentes had assaulted her and DNA from the aborted fetus was used to confirm Fuentes’s paternity.
Fuentes, who is a Guatemalan national illegally residing in the US, would be required to register as a sex offender if released. He could also be deported if released.
Common Pleas Court Judge Julie Lynch said the girl’s family “begged” her to support the plea deal, which Lynch described as a "very hard pill for this court to swallow."
"Anyone who's ever been in this courtroom for the last 20 years knows how this court feels about these babies, young people, being violated," Lynch said in court, per USA Today. "However, today, by the request of the family, this court will be sentencing without comment and everyone knows how hard that's going to be. Because the court considers this the worst of the offense."
The charges carried a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole.
Fuentes’s victim turned 10 shortly before being taken to Indiana by her mother to get an abortion. The girl’s pregnancy was too advanced to undergo an abortion in Ohio under the state law that went into effect after the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal Roe v. Wade.
Dr. Caitlin Bernard, who performed the termination, discussed the case during an interview with The Indianapolis Star. The story was then repeated by President Joe Biden, drawing more attention to the case.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita launched an investigation into Bernard to determine if she had complied with state reporting laws. She was ultimately fined $3,000 by the state’s Medical Licensing Board for violating patient privacy laws by discussing the girl’s case with the press. The board did not find that Bernard had violated reporting laws and declined to suspend her medical license.
After the story gained national attention, the girl’s mother told Telemundo that all the allegations against Fuentes were lies and that she had not been the one to file charges against him.
