Pair sentenced for brutal rape of Minneapolis woman

Wisconsin State Journal
July 23, 2011
By Sandy Cullen

Two illegal immigrants convicted of abducting a 23-year-old Minnesota woman as she walked on a Downtown street, dragging her into an apartment building and repeatedly sexually assaulting her last summer were sentenced Friday to 20 and 27 years in prison.

Sergion Cazares-Herrera, 35, was sentenced to 27 years in prison and 13 years of extended supervision on convictions for first-degree sexual assault, kidnapping, strangulation and suffocation.

Odin Robledo-Hernandez, 35, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and 15 years of extended supervision for first-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.

"I don't have the words or the language to convey how horrific this crime was," said Dane County Circuit Judge Nicholas McNamara.

"This is every person's worst nightmare."

The victim, who traveled from Minneapolis to Madison to visit a friend, was forced from the 400 block of West Dayton Street into an apartment building as she walked from a bar sometime after 2 a.m. on Aug. 10.

After being dragged into a basement laundry room, she was held down, choked and sexually assaulted by both men.

Cazares-Herrera and Robledo-Hernandez then took her to an apartment, where they again sexually and physically assaulted her.

The woman told police that during the first assault in the laundry room, a third man watched and was laughing.

She said she tried to leave after the assaults but was kept in the apartment by Robledo-Hernandez.

She eventually was able to escape and get to a friend's house.

"A part of her did die in that basement," McNamara said. "She will always have pain."

Speaking in court through an interpreter, Robledo-Hernandez asked for forgiveness from the victim and her family.

"I'm very embarrassed and remorseful for this situation," he said.

"I know that I could have done something so these things didn't happen to her, but I didn't do it."

"I saw that she was suffering, I saw that they were hurting her, and I didn't do anything."

Robledo-Hernandez was quickly identified as one of the assailants because of his distinctive, bulging eyes.

Another illegal immigrant initially was charged with Robledo-Hernandez and was ordered to stand trial after a preliminary hearing.

But soon after the hearing, the victim told police she saw a different man -Cazares-Herrera - whom she believed was the other attacker.

Police obtained a DNA sample from Cazares-Herrera that matched a DNA mix found on the woman's body.

Both will be deported after their release from prison.

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