A professional clown who abducted and raped a 12-year-old girl took a plea deal with prosecutors on Wednesday.
While wearing his clown costume and makeup, Jose Guadalupe Jimenez grabbed the girl from outside a Taco Bell restaurant in Fullerton, Calif. around midnight on January 19, 2002, Newport Beach Patch reports.
The man forced her into his car and drove to a middle school parking lot, where he raped her. Jimenez then drove to a nearby motel, where the victim was able to escape when he went to speak with the clerk.
Now 43, Jimenez has pleaded guilty to one count of lewd acts upon a child under 14 and one count of forcible lewd acts upon a child. As part of the plea bargain, the judge dismissed a charge of aggravated sexual assault against a child.
If Jimenez had been convicted at trial, he could have faced 25 years to life in prison. By pleading guilty, he received a sentence of 10 years.
Jimenez was arrested in 2011, when a DNA analysis linked him to the attack.
He had worked as a clown for nine years prior to his arrest, using the stage name "El Tin Larin," KTLA reports. According to the Orange County Register, the name is a play on "El Original Tin Larin," a popular Mexican cookie.