SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - A Sioux City woman who schemed with her husband to illegally harbor a 17-year-old Guatemalan girl in what authorities have called a human trafficking case has been sentenced to a year in prison.
Amy Francisco, 40, was sentenced Friday in Sioux City’s federal court, the Sioux City Journal reported. She pleaded guilty in November i to one count of encouraging an alien to come to or enter the United States.
Her husband, 38-year-old Cristobal Francisco-Nicolas, pleaded guilty in December to federal counts of smuggling and unlawful possession of identification documents. He is awaiting sentencing.
Prosecutors say Francisco-Nicolas helped pay smuggling costs for the girl and her father to get from Guatemala to the U.S.-Mexico border and then travel to Sioux City.
The girl was found wandering Sioux City streets last June and told authorities she had been repeatedly raped by Francisco-Nicolas before she escaped.
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