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Final 12 months, the story of a 10-year-old woman in Ohio who had traveled to Indiana for an abortion grew to become a flashpoint within the nationwide abortion debate. On Wednesday, the Ohio man who had been charged with raping the woman pleaded responsible and was sentenced to life in jail with the potential of parole.
The person, Gerson Fuentes, 28, appeared in Franklin County Courtroom of Widespread Pleas in Columbus, Ohio, the place he entered the plea settlement to 2 counts of rape, which supplies him the potential of parole after 25 years, in response to livestream broadcasts from native media contained in the courtroom.
Mr. Fuentes, who was arrested in July of final 12 months, had earlier pleaded not responsible to 2 prices of felony rape of the woman, who was 9 on the time, court docket and police information present. The trial had been scheduled to start out on Jan. 9, however it was delayed due to plea negotiations, investigations and scheduling, a prosecutor, Dan Meyer, mentioned that month.
Zachary Olah, Mr. Fuentes’s lawyer, was not instantly out there for remark.
A Columbus Police Division incident report mentioned that Mr. Fuentes was arrested after the woman went to a physician, who decided she was pregnant. Mr. Fuentes was charged with the rape of a kid below 13 years previous, a felony that may carry a life sentence. He was held on $2 million bond.
G. Gary Tyack, the prosecuting lawyer for Franklin County, introduced in July 2022 {that a} grand jury had returned an indictment charging Mr. Fuentes with two counts of rape. The indictment mentioned that the assaults passed off between Jan. 1 and on or about Could 12 of final 12 months.
The woman’s story was first reported by The Indianapolis Star. A video of the court docket listening to posted by the conservative information website Townhall final 12 months confirmed the testimony of Detective Jeffrey Huhn of the Columbus police, who mentioned the woman’s mom took her to Indiana for the abortion on the finish of June final 12 months when she was simply previous six weeks pregnant.
He mentioned Mr. Fuentes had confessed to raping the woman twice.
The Columbus Dispatch earlier reported on the arrest and the connection to the woman, who was 10 when she traveled throughout state strains to obtain the abortion, in a case that captured nationwide consideration.
In June 2022, the Supreme Courtroom overturned the constitutional proper to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade. The choice was adopted by a wave of abortion restrictions, together with a regulation in Ohio that bans abortion after about six weeks of being pregnant, with no exception for rape or incest. That regulation prevented the woman from receiving an abortion in her house state, the place intercourse with an individual below the age of 13 is a first-degree felony.
The Ohio case fueled heated public and political disputes over whether or not the story was true, President Biden and supporters of abortion rights pointed to the woman’s expertise because the tragic consequence of abortion bans. Conservatives questioned whether or not the kid even existed, and the Ohio lawyer common, David Yost, initially mentioned he discovered no proof of such a sufferer.
After the arrest, Mr. Yost issued an announcement saying his “coronary heart aches for the ache suffered by this younger little one.”
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