by The man accused of raping a 10-year-old girl who traveled to Indiana to have an abortion he pleaded guilty to one count of rape on Wednesday and was immediately sentenced to life in prison.
Gerson Fuentes, 28, was charged with two felony rape in an indictment filed in Franklin County, Ohio, last year in a case that made national headlines following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Fuentes, a Guatemalan national, confessed to raping the girl in an interview with police, according to documents filed in Franklin County Municipal Court.
He was charged with the rape of a minor and was supposed to stand trial in January, but the case was delayed.
Fuentes was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 25 years and will have to register as a Level 3 sex offender.
Prosecutors said the victim’s mother did not object to the guilty plea and agreed with the sentencing recommendation.
Franklin County Judge Julie Lynch said the court considers Fuentes’ crime among the most serious crimes and that it was a “hard pill” for the court to accept the joint sentencing recommendation, apparently referring to the possibility of probation. .
“If that family hadn’t begged me to take this joint recommendation, this never would have happened,” Lynch said.
The girl in the case tested positive on a pregnancy test and sought an abortion, prosecutors confirmed in court on Wednesday.
Fuentes was the boyfriend of the girl’s mother and the girl was under 10 at the time of the rape, prosecutors said.
The 10-year-old girl had to travel to a neighboring state to terminate the pregnancy after she was raped, her doctor, Dr. Caitlin Bernard, said. The Indianapolis Star last summer. Ohio’s “fetal heartbeat” law, which bans abortion, was enacted hours after the Supreme Court ruled to strike down abortion protections in a 6-3 ruling in June last year.
Bernard was reprimanded and fined by the Indiana Medical Licensing Board for speaking publicly about the girl’s case in violation of patient privacy laws.
But the board cleared her of more serious charges Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita charged her with, including failure to report child abuse and that she was unfit to practice medicine. Bernard sent Rokita a infraction letter last year asking him to stop making “false or misleading statements” about her.
Bernard’s attorney, Alice Morical, said in a statement in May that Bernard was grateful to have been cleared of such allegations by the board.
“Dr. Bernard has courageously championed access to compassionate healthcare and is a consummate professional who deserves to care for her patients without reproach,” Morical said.
Indiana University Health, where Bernard works as an OB/GYN, investigated the issue last year and determined that Bernard had complied with patient privacy laws.
Indiana also passed a near-total ban on abortion in the state, with exceptions for rape, incest and life-threatening medical complications, but a judge temporarily blocked it last year.
