(Sioux City)– A Guatemalan man Monday pled guilty to illegal re-entry and failure to register as a sex offender in a case with ties to northwest Iowa.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa says 27-year-old Sergio Niz-Mendez had previously been removed from the U.S in 2018 and had not sought permission to legally be in the country. He was also required to register as a sex offender after being convicted of raping a child in Massachusetts in 2016. Niz-Mendez was found in O’Brien county after being arrested for operating while intoxicated and eluding.
For the illegal reentry conviction, he faces a maximum of two years imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and one year of supervised release. For the failure to register conviction, Niz-Mendez faces a maximum of up to 10 years’ imprisonment, a $250,000 fine and five years to life of supervised release. He remains held in the custody of a U.S. Marshal pending transport to a federal prison.
