Convicted Pa. child abuser sentenced to prison, then to be deported

April 10, 2008|By DON AINES

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - A Waynesboro, Pa., man who beat three children with clothes hangers will spend the next five to 10 years in state prison and then be turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.

Christian Luna Hidalgo, 26, of 231 W. North St., was sentenced Wednesday in Franklin County Court to the mandatory minimum of five years in prison for aggravated assault against children under the age of 13, an offense to which he pleaded no contest on March 5. He also entered pleas of no contest to two counts of endangering the welfare of children.

Hidalgo was charged after a woman brought her 5-year-old daughter to Waynesboro Hospital with an injured arm, Waynesboro police said. Doctors determined the arm was broken and that it and other bruises she had were the result of abuse.

The girl, whom police said also had one ear swollen shut, told Children and Youth Services that Hidalgo struck her with a clothes hanger.

The girl's mother told police that Hidalgo threatened to lock her in the basement and kill her if she went to the police, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

Police said bruises and cuts made from being hit with a clothes hanger were also found on an 11-month-old child. A 7-year-old boy had two "cauliflower ears" and second-degree burns on both hands, the affidavit stated.

The 7-year-old told police that Hidalgo cooked a bowl of food in the microwave and made him take it out with his bare hands.

"His left hand appeared as one huge blister," the affidavit stated.

Judge Douglas W. Herman asked Hidalgo if he had been drinking when the incidents occurred.

"No sir. It was really an accident," Hidalgo said through an interpreter.

Herman told Hidalgo he will be turned over to immigration officials after he is paroled from state prison.

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