RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) — One among three folks convicted of carjacking and kidnapping an FBI worker in South Dakota has been sentenced to 37 years in jail.
Juan Alvarez-Sorto, 25, was sentenced Friday in federal courtroom, the Fast Metropolis Journal reported. Alvarez-Sorto and Deyvin Morales, 29, had been discovered responsible in January. Alvarez-Sorto additionally was convicted of unlawfully getting into the U.S. after being deported to his dwelling nation, El Salvador.
A 3rd suspect, 29-year-old Karla Lopez-Gutierrez, pleaded responsible in August. Morales and Lopez-Gutierrez are each scheduled for sentencing April 26.
Prosecutors stated the trio left Greeley, Colorado, on Could 5, 2022, and had been on a “drug trafficking journey” to South Dakota in a Ford Expedition. Practically out of fuel on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Morales advised the others they wanted to “take over” a brand new automobile, Lopez-Gutierrez testified in January.
A short while later, the FBI worker rushing in his Dodge Durango noticed the Expedition and pulled over, believing it was a tribal officer. Prosecutors stated the suspects took the Durango at gunpoint and compelled the sufferer to go alongside.
“I’m nonetheless haunted by the trauma you inflicted upon me,” the sufferer advised Alvarez-Sorto on the sentencing listening to. He stated Alvarez-Sorto threatened his household and held a gun to the again of his head as he was face-down within the Badlands.
When the group stopped to purchase fuel and zip ties within the city of Hermosa, South Dakota, the sufferer managed to flee.
Morales and Alvarez-Sorto had been arrested in Greeley every week later. Lopez-Gutierrez was arrested in August 2022 in Loveland, Colorado.
Alvarez-Sorto’s legal professional, Alecia Fuller, stated his consumer was remorseful and famous that family members had abused Alvarez-Sorto as a toddler.
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