NM Teen Arrested for Alleged Sex with 7 Year Old
Feb 2, 2006, 05:34 PM MST
LAS CRUCES, NM. - A 13 year old boy is arrested in the City of the Crosses, accused of allegedly forcing a 7 year old girl to have sex with him.
According to State Prosecutors, the sexual assaults allegedly happend in a mobile home park, around the area of West Picacho Avenue, over a period of six months.
Prosecutors say from June to December of 2005, 13 year old Thomas Garza allegedly forced a 7-year-old girl to engage in sexual acts with him more than a dozen times. Neighbors tell ABC-7 that Garza is a freshman at Mayfield High School.
Garza has been charged with 9 counts of Raping a Child under 13 and four counts of molesting her. LCPD Officer Carlos Wooten tells ABC-7, "The fact that she was willing to tell what happened, give her best description of what happened and to get it all out says a lot about the strength in the victim."
If Garza is tried and convicted as a juvenille , he could go to juvenille detention for 2 to 8 years. However, if he is convicted as an adult, he could face up to nearly 200 years in prison.