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Crime

Former Casa Grande man gets 200+ years for child sexual abuse

Posted 1/26/24

A former foster parent and Casa Grande resident has been sentenced to 218 years in prison for the sexual abuse of a child in his care.

In Florence on Friday, Pinal County Superior Court Judge …

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Crime

Former Casa Grande man gets 200+ years for child sexual abuse

Posted

A former foster parent and Casa Grande resident has been sentenced to 218 years in prison for the sexual abuse of a child in his care.

In Florence on Friday, Pinal County Superior Court Judge Jason Holmberg sentenced Francisco Medina, 53, to 218 years in the Arizona Department of Corrections.

A jury found Medina guilty of six counts of sexual conduct with a minor under the age of 15 and molestation of a child, according to a Pinal County Attorney’s Office press release.

"I hope this outcome gives the victim some small amount of closure and helps her in healing," Pinal County Attorney Kent Volkmer, stated in the release. "I can't fathom what she's had to deal with, but I admire her strength and courage to hold her perpetrator accountable."

In 2020, the Tucson Police Department spoke to the victim, who is now an adult, about past reports of sexual abuse by Medina when the victim and Medina lived in Casa Grande. The victim disclosed that she was a foster child in

Medina’s care from 1996-1997, when she was around the age of 8 or 9. The victim told investigators Medina entered her room at night on multiple occasions and sexually abused her, the release stated.

Medina is already serving multiple life sentences in the Arizona Department of Corrections related to more than a dozen counts of sexual conduct with a minor of varying degrees in Pima County. That case also involved a separate child in Medina’s care.

“Medina committed the worst kind of betrayal. Rather than providing comfort and love for these little girls entrusted to his care, he repeatedly sexually abused them,” Deputy County Attorney Lauren Deakin stated in the release. “The strength and courage they demonstrated by coming forward to law enforcement and then testifying during two trials -- here and in Pima County -- is admirable. My prayer is that the trial process has been empowering for both survivors, and that they know just how loved and supported they are.”

At the sentencing, the victim addressed the court and detailed the emotional hardship she has endured due to the abuse. She called Medina “pure evil” and credited the support of family and friends.

Medina’s sentence will run consecutively to his sentence in Pima County.