A 28-year-old illegal immigrant, Gerson Fuentes, has been given a life sentence after raping and impregnating a 9-year-old.
Fuentes is required to serve 25-30 years in prison before being eligible for parole, the outcome of a plea deal.
“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,” Judge Julie Lynch said.
“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 [offenses],” the judge continued.
Fuentes was the boyfriend of the victim’s mother.
The case has been at the center of abortion rights discussions as the 9-year-old girl had to travel out of state to terminate the pregnancy.
Reporting from PBS:
The case gained national attention after Dr. Caitlin Bernard of Indianapolis said a 10-year-old child had to travel to Indiana to terminate a pregnancy because Ohio banned the procedure at the first detectable fetal heartbeat. Some 25 states have banned or restricted abortion since the Supreme Court struck down Roe, though many of the new laws are still being litigated. Indiana’s state Medical Licensing Board voted in May to reprimand Bernard, finding that she violated patient privacy laws when she told a newspaper reporter about the case, even without revealing directly protected information like the survivor’s name or address.
