Friday, Aug 3, 2007
Posted on Fri, Aug. 03, 2007
Deported sex offender caught in Fort Worth
http://www.star-telegram.com/crime_cour ... 89887.html

By ALEX BRANCH
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
FORT WORTH -- A convicted sex offender who was deported to Mexico in 2003 was arrested Wednesday in Fort Worth after authorities learned he had returned to Tarrant County.

Hilario Soto-Hernandez, 41, was living in the 1700 block of Denver Avenue and working at a restaurant in Justin, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


Convicted felons who re-enter the United States after being deported can be sentenced to as much as 20 years in prison.

Soto-Hernandez was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child in 1995. He molested a 7-year-old girl for more than six months while she and her mother lived at his Fort Worth home, according to the immigration agency.

Soto-Hernandez was sentenced to 10 years' deferred adjudication. After years of appealing a deportation order, he was sent from the country in December 2003, said Carl Rusnok, an agency spokesman.

In July, authorities learned that Soto-Hernandez had returned. The Safe City Commission CrimeStoppers included Soto-Hernandez on the July 22 Most Wanted list, and an anonymous tip led the Tarrant County Sheriff's Department to his home and work addresses.

The tipster will receive a $1,000 reward, authorities said.

Soto-Hernandez is not a suspect in any new molestation cases, although "our investigators will probably review their open cases," said Terry Grisham, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

Fort Worth sex crimes detectives could not be reached for comment Thursday.