A Rhode Island man was sentenced Wednesday to nine years in prison for molesting and impregnating a 14-year-old girl whom he smuggled into the country from Guatemala, a report says.
Edilsar Alvarado, 40, managed to sneak the child into the United States in 2008 with help from a human smuggler — also known as a “coyote,” according to the Providence Journal.
He reportedly arranged and paid for her to be taken over the US-Mexico border, traveling by foot in the dark of night when she was just 13.
Prosecutors said the young girl, who is now an adult, told state police she met Alvarado in Guatemala while he was visiting his family. She was only 11 years old.
The youngster claimed he asked her to perform a list of tasks — such as cooking and cleaning — to make sure she’d be a suitable spouse.
“It was cunning and manipulative,” said Special Assistant Attorney General Ania Zielinski.
Upon her arrival in the US, Alvarado enrolled the girl in school and pretended to be her cousin.
“He was a 30-something-year-old raping a 13-year-old,” Zielinski said.
Alvarado later impregnated the girl when she was 14 and wound up living with her for several years before getting into a custody dispute with her over their child, the Journal reports.
The molestation eventually came to light during the court proceedings, cops said.
“There’s no question he knew it was illegal,” Superior Court Judge Netti Vogel said Wednesday during Alvarado’s sentencing.
“Make no mistake about it. This defendant sits here as a child molester.”
Alvarado was ultimately given 18 years behind bars, with nine to serve, after being found guilty of first-degree molestation.
Prosecutors had called on Vogel to bring the hammer down on Alvarado — requesting 30 years in prison — in an attempt to deter others from committing similar crimes. But his lawyer asked the court to show leniency.
“How it started was illegal,” explained attorney John E. MacDonald. “How it continued” is a completely different matter, he said.
According to MacDonald, Alvarado and the teen lived together as a couple for five years — raising their child together amicably — before eventually going their separate ways.
Taking this into account, Vogel convicted Alvarado on two child-molestation counts, but dismissed charges of first-degree sexual assault and simple assault.
Alvarado will now have to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.