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A South Salt Lake man will go to prison for sexually abusing two boys in March while performing a spiritual cleansing ceremony at their home.

But long before the Guatemalan transvestite came to be known as a Mayan priestess named Nicole Morales, Jose David Morales-Hernandez was a little boy subject to regular group rapes and beatings by his gangster cousins, his lawyer said at his sentencing Monday.

"At age 10, his mom found him sitting in a pool of blood with his pants down," attorney Ralph Dellapiana said. For three years, Morales-Hernandez' five older cousins had been attacking him about three times a week, Dellapiana said. The family lived in Guatemala at the time, and his parents did not seek criminal action for fear of gang retaliation.

Morales-Hernandez' background does not justify his crime, Dellapiana said, "but it is an explanation."

The victims' mother hired Morales-Hernandez, 22, to spiritually cleanse their house — a custom that is "not unusual" among Latino families, said prosecutor Cristina Ortega. His business card identified him as Nicole Morales, "The Divine Master" and Mayan priestess.

Once inside the house, Morales-Hernandez told the woman and her two boys — then 12 and 13 — to strip down to their underwear before the ceremony.

"You don't question somebody that comes in to cleanse your home," Ortega said. Morales-Hernandez took the boys into their rooms separately and closed the door. He massaged them and then performed sex acts on both boys.

Morales-Hernandez came back each day for three days, police have said. He abused the boys four times before the 12-year-old told his mother.

"I've had many families many times [for cleansings], and this has never happened before," Morales-Hernandez said.

Morales-Hernandez asked Judge Ann Boyden for jail time, but Boyden said three years to life in prison is "the only responsible sentence." Morales-Hernandez pleaded guilty in August to two first-degree felony counts of attempted aggravated sex abuse of a child.

She said accounts of abuses against Morales-Hernandez showed more than just the foundation behind his own crimes. "It shows that when you were in this situation that you knew ... this was going to be terrifying to these little boys," she said.

Morales-Hernandez will go to prison under an immigration detainer and will be deported to Guatemala after he is released.

"If I go back, my life is in danger," he said.