A Guatemalan man pled guilty Monday to the 2021 kidnapping and rape of a deaf woman in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The incident began when Josue Cartagena, a then-18-year-old high school student who the victim described as a “friend of a friend,” danced with the woman at Lulu’s Nightclub before groping her, prosecutors said. After the woman pushed Cartagena away, she purportedly left the club to walk roughly one mile home.
Juarez-Lopez originally claimed the group sex was consensual before telling police the woman was able to communicate she wanted to go home, the prosecutors said. Cartagena communicated with the woman using “signs,” according to Juarez-Lopez. Juarez-Lopez was sentenced to 18 years in prison for first-degree kidnapping and nine years for second-degree criminal sexual penetration. Cartagena’s father said his son had to return to Guatemala since he wasn’t a U.S. citizen. Two of the other men involved in the incident are also currently awaiting sentencing, according to theFocus on crimes perpetrated by undocumented immigrants in the U.S. has intensified as the presidential election approaches.