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HERRIMAN — A Draper man accused of taking a 13-year-old Herriman girl from her home will now go to prison for sexually abusing her.
He originally faced 14 charges in the 2013 disappearance, but Angel Vizuet Garcia, 55, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of aggravated sexual abuse a child, a first-degree felony, as part of a plea bargain.
Garcia was then sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
Garcia was arrested in January 2013, accused of picking up the then-13-year-old girl after she crept out of her bedroom window and called him with a prepaid cellphone that he had given her several weeks earlier. Family members feared that the girl had left home barefoot in her pajamas, leaving her glasses behind.
Police say Garcia took the girl to his Draper home, where he kept for two days while more than 1,000 volunteers scoured Herriman searching for the girl. At one point, she hid in a bedroom while officers were at Garcia's door, police said.
Related:
Judge refuses to unseal testimony in Herriman kidnapping case
A judge who admitted that he didn't follow the law when he closed a court hearing to the public ruled Friday that he will not release a transcript of the testimony against a man charged with multiple counts of raping and kidnapping a teenage girl.The girl was eventually dropped off at a South Jordan Wal-Mart where she called her family.
Garcia had reportedly met the girl when they lived in the same neighborhood, and she became friends with Garcia's daughter.
In exchange for Garcia's guilty plea, 11 first-degree felony charges of child kidnapping, sodomy on a child, rape of a child and aggravated sexual abuse of a child were dismissed. Other charges of obstructing justice and reckless endangerment were also dismissed.
Prosecutors said Garcia had been sexually abusing the girl as far back as 2008.
