Man who raped Jehovah's Witness girls sentenced to 5 years in prison
"It’s finally over. This chapter is finally closed," Moriah Hughes, who was 14 when then-25-year-old Elihu Rodriguez sexually abused her, said.
A man who pleaded guilty to raping two underage girls he met through the Jehovah's Witness congregation they all belonged to has been sentenced to five years in prison — a "relief" to his victims.
Elihu Rodriguez, 32, of Yakima, Washington, was given five years, the maximum sentence prosecutors had asked for, after Rodriguez pleaded guilty to three felony counts of child rape in the third degree in September. He was also ordered to register as a sex offender. Both of his victims attended the sentencing, which took place Friday at the King County Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, Washington.
NBC News does not typically identify survivors of sexual abuse, but one of Rodriguez's victims, Moriah Hughes, chose to share her story last year. She said she had been five days away from turning 15 when Rodriguez, then 25, first raped her in October 2012 at her home in Federal Way, Washington.
Hughes told NBC News after Rodriguez was sentenced that she "felt fantastic" knowing he was going to be behind bars.