Illegal entrant faces 2.5 years for abandoning baby in desert

Man is convicted of negligent child abuse in Cochise

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SIERRA VISTA — An illegal entrant who abandoned a 16-month-old girl under a mesquite bush as Border Patrol agents closed in was convicted of child abuse, but a jury rejected a more serious charge that could have led to a 24-year prison sentence.

Juan Cayetano Rosas, 24, faces 2 1/2 years in prison for Friday's conviction on a negligent child abuse charge.

Cayetano, from Huachinango in the Mexican state of Puebla, was among a group who crossed the border on July 5, 2005.

He testified at his trial in Bisbee that he had just squeezed through a fence into the United States when the migrant smuggler leading his group told a woman to hand Cayetano her baby.

When Border Patrol vehicles suddenly appeared, Cayetano said the smuggler told the group to run. He ran with the baby and the mother went the other way.

Cayetano said he lay on the desert floor with the child for about two hours before the girl started crying.

Thinking the cries would attract nearby agents, he ran away.