LOGAN — A 43-year-old man with a lengthy criminal history has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping a 14-year-old girl while on parole. Jose Angel Reyes was given the maximum sentence after a judge said it was the only way to protect the community from the former Logan man.
Reyes was sentenced July 7 in Logan’s 1st District Court. He previously pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and forcible sodomy, both first-degree felonies; along with kidnapping and obstructing justice, both second-degree felonies.
According to prosecutors, Reyes was staying at a Logan residence in April 2023, after being granted parole on multiple felony convictions. The victim, who had run away from home earlier, was staying at the same location.
Police report, Reyes supplied the teenage girl methamphetamine and then violently assaulted her. She was dragged up a flight of stairs by her hair, strangled and raped.
During Monday’s sentencing, the victim’s mother described how her daughter was always a happy girl prior to the brutal assault. She asked the court to keep Reyes in prison for as long as possible, saying the court process had been sickening.
Cache County Deputy Attorney Ronnie Keller also asked the court for a lengthy sentence, calling Reyes a “significant public safety risk.”. He explained how the Logan man had a lengthy criminal history, with 20 prior convictions.
Reyes apologized and said, “I made my own bed and I’m sorry for that.” He stated there was no excuse for what he did.
Judge Spencer Walsh told Reyes, “You are a violent dangerous man.” He noted how the defendant had also recorded raping the victim for his “own deviant purposes.”
Reyes was ordered to serve two terms of five-years-to-life for each of the first-degree felonies, along with two terms of one-to-15-years for each of the second-degree felonies.
Judge Walsh said Reyes was “callus,” and society needed to be protected from him. He ordered each prison term to run consecutively, for a total of 12 years, and refused to give any credit for time already served.