Gainesville man who disappeared after jury selection convicted in absentia
BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Ian Gabriel Montero-Lopez, 19, was convicted by a jury on October 19 of one count of sexual battery of a girl between the ages of 12 and 18 and one count of sexual battery with physical force.
The juvenile victim told investigators that she had met Montero-Lopez on Snapchat around December 17, 2021, and that they had communicated on Snapchat, text messages, and FaceTime. On the night of December 23, he told her he wanted to see her in person, but she told him it was late and her parents were asleep. She eventually agreed, and at about 1:30 a.m. on December 24, he took an Uber to her residence, and she climbed out her bedroom window to meet him.
They went for a walk in her neighborhood, and Montero-Lopez gave her a “blunt,” which made her very sleepy. They started walking back to her house, and when they got there, they both went into her bedroom. The victim said she was sleepy, confused, and “going in and out of consciousness” during the rest of the incident. She reported that he raped her and then climbed out the window. Her injuries were consistent with her report of the incident.
On November 17, the victim addressed the court for her victim impact statement, and Judge James Colaw sentenced Montero-Lopez to life in prison on the first count and a concurrent 30-year prison sentence on the second count.
Montero-Lopez disappeared after the trial jury selection and currently has an active warrant.
I wonder how old the victim was? What is this second count he was convicted for? Hell, I’d skip out on that sentence too if I was given the chance. Gonna be hard for a young black man to stay out of trouble in todays world.
That is a very stiff sentence, the young lady could be lying.
Damn Life in prison. Damn judge
If it was your child the POS did that too how would you feel then
Gotta throw the pedophile sympathizers, who make excuses for adults that drug and rape children, in prison with the child rapists.
Exactly a rapist is just that a got damn rapist!
Maybe you get the maximum sentence for those crimes if you run away from your trial, especially in something like a rape case with a real victim. I agree it sounds harsh compared to other sentences around here, but they probably want it to be a deterrent otherwise no one would show up for trial if they expected to get cut a lot of slack.
How could she be lying when medical exam proves she has injuries that occur in young people that were raped….tell me she faked that……Duh!
He deserves worse than a prison sentence. Everyone that rapes a child does, period. Only an animal could drug and rape a child. Should be nailed to a tree in the middle of the woods and forgotten about.
Yeah his parents shipped him to a random Latin American country. Given how we about immigration,it’s highly unlikely said random Latin American country will extradite one of their own.
Terrible crime, but politics are politics.
Damn I was really hoping he would get what he had coming to him in prison I pray to God that they catch him and anybody that prays on underage girls!
I know Judge Colaw. He is most definitely the hanging judge, he has no issue sending folks away for extreme sentences. In this case, it definitely sounds a little out of bounds for a 19-year old to sit in prison for life, but when you run from the law, it will get you.
I bet you a canine officer could find him??
The perp had just turned 18, and the girl was 15, almost 16. As parents with two sons, we counsel our boys constantly about issues like consent and respect. And, as parents of daughters, also, we counsel our daughters to be very wary of strangers met on the internet, and to respect their own bodies. I believe that this young girl willingly engaged in sex with him and then she had remorse the next day. I do not believe that the alleged rapist purposefully drugged her or raped her. If she had ill effects from the blunt, then didn’t he, as well? How could he have the legally required intent if he was also under the influence of something that was very possibly laced, unbeknownst to him. It should also be known that this is the second time that the victim has made this type of allegation against a young man. Now there’s some food for thought…..
I think that’s not the first time she has done that before she just got caught and now they pressing the issue 30 years to life i very extreme. Now and days that’s what kids do. But not just now and days this been going on. You just hear about it due to social media.