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SEASIDE, Calif.- A Seaside man was sentenced to 17 years in state prison Wednesday for lewd acts on a 12-year-old girl last year who he also took to Los Angeles without telling her family.
Monterey County District Attorney Dean D. Flippo announced that Judge Pamela Butler handed down the sentence to Eli Garcia, 19, after a jury convicted him on October 24 of six counts of contacting a minor for purpose of sexual contact and 15 counts of lewd acts on a minor under the age of 14.
Garcia will also be required to register as a sex offender for life.
The D.A. said Garcia befriended the victim in November of 2011 and shortly thereafter pursued a sexual relationship with her. Garcia's crimes were discovered when the grandmother found some inappropriate pictures of Garcia and her granddaughter on the girl's camera. The grandmother notified law enforcement, but the victim initially denied that Garcia had molested her. After Garcia took the girl, Seaside Detective Bruno Dias was able to track down Garcia in Los Angeles.
