Mesa man sentenced to 35 years in prison for abusing 3-year-old girl
Oct 23, 2018, 3:04 PM | Updated: 9:01 pm
(MCSO photo)
(MCSO photo)
PHOENIX — A Mesa man was expected to spend the next three decades behind bars for abusing a 3-year-old girl, it was announced Tuesday.
Maricopa County Judge Warren Granville sentenced Fransico Javier-Rios Covarrubias to 35 years in prison for two counts of kidnapping and three counts of attempted child abuse.
Covarrubias was also sentenced to lifetime probation for his crimes. He pleaded guilty to the charges in August.
“When an adult causes harm to a child like this, violating both the trust and innocence of a child, they must be held accountable for their depraved actions,” Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement.
“This office is committed to aggressively prosecuting offenders who abuse the most innocent and defenseless among us, ensuring they are sent to prison where they belong.”
Covarrubias was arrested in 2016 after officers received reports that a young girl was being severely abused — and possibly offered to other men for sexual abuse — by her caretaker.
Officers found the girl in a trash bag in a closet. Her wrists and ankles were bound with duct tape, which was also found over her mouth.
The girl had multiple bruises and injuries and had been left in a heavily soiled diaper for some time.
She was taken to a local hospital, where she was found to be malnourished and dehydrated and had extensive injuries from being left in soiled diapers and possible sexual abuse.
The girl also could not communicate and could barely stand.
Covarrubias told officers that he left the girl in the trash bag so her soiled diaper would not ruin his apartment and that he kept her bound in the closet so she would not get out when he had people over.
He had been watching the girl, who was the daughter of a previous co-worker, off and on for months.
