A man has been sentenced to 38 years in prison for the murder and sexual abuse of an eight-year-old girl in the municipality of Tenamaxtlán, Jalisco in November 2020.
The high-profile case shocked this small community located on the fringe of the Sierra de Quila in central Jalisco. It was tried as a femicide, meaning that under recent reforms to the Jalisco penal code, the perpetrator could have faced a prison term of between 40 and 70 years. (Life terms are prohibited under federal laws.)
Prosecutors showed that Fernando “P” strangled his niece—referred to only as Heidi—to death after sexually abusing her. He then half buried her body in a field, where it was found three days later.
The case was used as an example by women’s activist organizations to highlight the wider issue of violence toward children and adolescents in the state, as well as the slow process of obtaining justice for victims of femicides.