A 57-year sentence was handed down to a man who abducted an FBI agent in South Dakota
A 57-year jail term has been imposed on one of the three individuals found guilty of carjacking and kidnapping an FBI employee in South Dakota.
According to the Rapid City Journal, Juan Alvarez-Sorto, 25, was given a sentence on Friday in federal court. In January, Alvarez-Sorto and 29-year-old Deyvin Morales were found guilty. Alvarez-Sorto was also found guilty of sneaking into the United States after being sent back to El Salvador.
In August, Karla Lopez-Gutierrez, 29, who was the third suspect, entered a guilty plea. The sentencing hearing for Morales and Lopez-Gutierrez is set for April 26.
The trio allegedly departed Greeley, Colorado, on May 5, 2022, and traveled to South Dakota in a Ford Expedition on a “drug trafficking trip,” according to the prosecution. Lopez-Gutierrez testified in January that Morales, at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, told the others they had to “take over” a new car since they were almost out of gas.
Shortly after, thinking it was a tribal cop, the FBI employee speeding in his Dodge Durango noticed the expedition and pulled over. At gunpoint, the suspects allegedly grabbed the Durango and coerced the victim into following them.
“The trauma you caused me still haunts me,” the victim stated to Alvarez-Sorto during the sentence hearing. He claimed that while he was face-down in the Badlands, Alvarez-Sorto held a revolver to the back of his head and threatened his family.
The victim got away when the group pulled into the hamlet of Hermosa, South Dakota, to buy zip ties and gas.
A week later, Morales and Alvarez-Sorto were taken into custody in Greeley. In August 2022, Lopez-Gutierrez was taken into custody in Loveland, Colorado.
Alecia Fuller, the lawyer for Alvarez-Sorto, stated that her client was sorry and mentioned that Alvarez-Sorto had been molested by family members when she was younger.
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