This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A 28-year-old undocumented immigrant has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for traveling out of Utah with a 15-year-old West Valley City girl for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity.
Nelson Acosta-Meledez was arrested in October at a Missouri bus terminal in the company of the girl, who was taken into protective custody.
They were on their way to Atlanta, where, the girl told investigators, they were going to live as boyfriend and girlfriend, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.
The girl was reported missing on Oct. 14, after school officials contacted her parents to inform then she was not in school.
Her father told police she had been talking "to some strange male" who was not known to the girl's family or friends, the charges state.
The girl's parents posted on social media that she was missing, and police pinged her phone and determined she was traveling east.
Later on Oct. 14, the girl's mother received a Facebook post from a woman was in a relationship with Acosta-Meledez and who has two children with him.
According to the charges, the message read, "Is your daughter Haley missing. I think she is with my baby's daddy and he is bad news. He is taking her to Atlanta and Im freaking out."
West Valley City detectives eventually confirmed the girl was on a Greyhound bus to Atlanta, which was located in St. Louis, Mo.
After Acosta-Melendez's arrest, the girl told police she had been in a sexual relationship with the defendant for four months, and that she had had sexual intercourse with the defendant at least four times at his home in West Valley City, charges state.
Acosta-Melendez allegedly admitted to purchasing the bus tickets for himself and the girl by using false names.
In January, he pleaded guilty to one count of transporting a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity.
Judge Jill Parrish on Tuesday ordered Acosta-Melendez to spend five years in prison, followed by five years fo rsupervised release. If deported, Acosta-Melendez is not to re-enter the United States illegally, the judge ordered.