A man was sentenced Wednesday to 40 years to life in prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old girl for more than a year, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
Fernando Rodriguez, 57, was also ordered to register as a lifetime sex offender and to stay away from the victim for a decade, a DA’s office news release stated.
A jury convicted Rodriguez on May 25 of two counts each of lewd act upon a child, and oral copulation or sexual penetration with a child under the age of 10, and a single count each of child molesting and distributing or exhibiting harmful matter to a minor, according to the release.
The sexual abuse occurred between May 2013 and July 2014. During that period. Rodriguez molested the child and showed her pornography, prosecutors said.
Police were notified after the victim’s teacher learned of the molestation a year later.
After an investigation, a warrant was issued for Rodriguez’s arrest; he was apprehended 10 days later, and has remained in custody since then.