FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) — A man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a young girl.
According to the Forsyth County District Attorney’s office, Joshua Hernandez-Figueroa pleaded guilty to first-degree statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a child on Monday, stemming from a 2019 assault.
The victim’s parents told the officers in September 2019 that their daughter had been assaulted by Hernandez-Figueroa, who was considered a family friend, in WInston-Salem.
Hernandez-Figueroa communicated with the girl via Snapchat before going to her home and assaulting her, the DA’s office says, in March or April of 2019 when the girl was 11 and Rios was 20.
Hernandez-Figueroa was sentenced to a minimum of 16 and a maximum of 24 years in prison and must register as a sex offender.
“Our children are the most vulnerable and precious members of our community. They must be protected, and their abusers will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” DA Jim O’Neill said in a statement.
