Man Caught In Mexico Faces OH Child Rape Sentence

A man captured in Mexico and then convicted for kidnapping and raping a 9-year-old Ohio girl is to be sentenced Thursday in southwest Ohio. A Butler County jury in Hamilton found Alfredo Lopez Cruz guilty last month of one count of kidnapping and four counts of rape. The now-teenage girl testified that he grabbed her off her bicycle in 2005, took her inside a house and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. Mexican and U.S. authorities worked together to take Lopez Cruz into custody last September after he fled to Mexico before he could be indicted. The case caused unrest that included vandalizing and burning a Hamilton house where Lopez Cruz was believed to have stayed. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Lopez Cruz's lawyer says he plans to appeal the conviction.