A Crystal Lake man has been found guilty of over a dozen sex crimes against a young female relative, who reported that she was sexually assaulted for over 13 years straight.
Arturo Hernandez-Pedraza, 42, of Crystal Lake, was found guilty by a jury of three counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, four counts of criminal sexual assault, three counts of sexual relations within families and one count of domestic battery.
Prosecutors said that Hernandez-Pedraza sexually assaulted the girl, who is now an adult, weekly and sometimes even daily for over 13 years, dating back to 2005.
McHenry County Assistant State’s Attorney Sharyl Eisenstein said that Hernandez-Pedraza threatened to kill the victim’s mother and brother if she told anyone about the assaults.
The girl told her mother about the assaults when she was 6 years old. The church that she went to with her mother was informed of the allegations as well but they also did not report it to police, prosecutors said.
The girl reported the abuse again in 2018 to the church and church elders finally reported it to Crystal Lake police, who opened an investigation.
Hernandez-Pedraza, who faces a minimum of 37 years in prison, is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Michael Coppedge on December 19.
The case was investigated by Detective Eitel of the Crystal Lake Police Department and prosecuted by Sharyl Eisenstein and Susanne Groebner of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Office.