U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani announced that a 33-year-old man who illegally resided in Houston had been sentenced to federal prison. Wilmer Rivera-Hernandez pleaded guilty on August 24. He has now been sentenced to 600 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr.

In June 2020, Rivera-Hernandez reportedly took a 15-year-old girl on what was supposed to be a date, but it turned into a nightmare. Once the girl realized Rivera-Hernandez was just driving around, she asked him to take her home. He refused. Instead, authorities say Rivera-Hernandez grabbed the victim by the head, strangled her, threatened her, and seized her phone.

Then, he allegedly forced her to drink alcohol and take medicine that would make her drowsy and unable to resist him. Rivera-Hernandez reportedly drove the victim from Houston, Texas to Little Rock, Arkansas where he took the girl to a motel room and raped her. The following day, Rivera-Hernandez drove the victim into Tennessee. At one point, the victim was able to access a phone and contact family asking them to call the police.

Law enforcement was able to use geolocation to track Rivera-Hernandez and the victim to a truck stop in Knoxville, Tennessee. Authorities say Rivera-Hernandez carried out a scheme to obstruct justice from prison following his indictment and arrest. He attempted to deliver fabricated WhatsApp messages pretending they were from the minor victim.

In these bogus messages, Rivera-Hernandez made it seem that the minor victim had recanted her claims and that she was in love with him. Rivera-Hernandez hoped the messages would lead to the dismissal of the charges against him. Rivera-Hernandez will remain in custody while awaiting transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility which will be determined at a later time.