Alejandro Garduno Sentenced For Bringing Girl From Mexico, Sexually Assaulting Her

Alejandro Garduno will be sent back to Mexico when he finishes a twelve-year prison sentence in Illinois, after bringing a young girl to the United States from Mexico and sexually assaulting her many times.

The victim was reportedly acquainted with one of Garduno's relatives in Mexico. When Garduno told her that he'd pay her way to come to the U.S., "she thought she was coming for school and a job in the future," Assistant DuPage County State's Attorney Anne Therieau said in court, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Instead, she faced repeated sexual abuse from Garduno himself, who reportedly touched and fondled her several times before he was arrested in 2009. Once, three years prior to his arrest, when she was 15 years old, he allegedly brought her flowers before assaulting her.

The suburban Daily Herald reports that Garduno gave a videotaped confession to the crime. On the tape, he said he had no intention of hurting the girl, and that he knew she was a minor and that it was wrong to be having sexual encounters with her.

He was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison, as the Chicago Sun-Times reports. And, given that he told the court that he is an illegal immigrant himself, he is almost certain to be deported to Mexico after his sentence is served. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have in fact placed a "no bond" hold on Garduno.

In a strange twist, the defendant's sister Merced Garduno is also caught up in the case. She's on the lam after pleading guilty in 2010 to harassing a witness -- she apparently came after the young victim of her brother's attacks after he was arrested. The sister Garduno faces seven years in prison for that crime, but she is currently nowhere to be found, according to the Tribune.