OAN Staff Katherine Mosack
8:46 AM – Friday, October 10, 2025
An illegal immigrant from El Salvador was sentenced to 30 years in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting an 11-year-old girl in Virginia Beach.
On Wednesday, the Virginia Beach Sheriff’s Office shared the mugshot of 35-year-old Ricardo Lionel Mejia, who was sentenced on Tuesday.
Mejia was booked into the Virginia Beach Correctional Center on October 9, 2024, after pleading guilty to three charges of raping a victim under age 13, indecent liberties with a child under 15, and statutory burglary.
The sheriff’s office stated that he will serve a 30-year sentence at the Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) facility on a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) retainer before being transferred to ICE for further proceedings.
The office said that they shared his information online “due to receiving numerous queries on Mejia’s status.”
The El Salvador citizen assaulted a minor in 2024, having been hired to renovate the family’s bathroom.
The victim’s mother forced open her daughter’s locked bedroom door with a butter knife to find Mejia in her bed. He fled out a window, but was later identified and taken into custody.
Mejia apologized to the victim during his sentencing, saying, “I know I am not the only one experiencing hard times. I’m sorry for the pain she is going through in this process.”
According to the Republican Governors Association, Democrat gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spangberger said that one of her first actions in office would be to overturn Governor Glenn Youngkin’s immigration policies to make Virginia a “sanctuary state.” This would bar local law enforcement from assisting ICE in cases such as this one.
Meanwhile, Republican gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears said on X that she was “sickened beyond words” about the incident.
“Her life will never be the same,” Earle-Sears said of the 11-year-old victim.
The GOP candidate added to her post, “Abigail Spanberger called police working with ICE a ‘distraction,’ and pledged to make us a sanctuary state. How many more children have to be hurt before Abigail admits her border policies are a disaster?”
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