A 44-year-old Boise man will spend at least 25 years in prison before he can even be considered for parole, after a judge sentenced him to life in prison for raping a 14-year-old girl who was in his care. Leonardo Gomez Torres pleaded guilty to the assault, and the court ordered him to register as a sex offender, pay restitution to the victim, and abide by a 20-year no-contact order.
Torres was sentenced last Friday, according to idahonews.com, which reported that prosecutors argued he had deliberately built trust within the household before turning on the child in his care. At sentencing, the state said Torres used his position as a family member to isolate and silence the girl, a characterization prosecutors leaned on heavily in asking the court for the harshest possible term.
Judge Cites a Scar That Will Not Go Away
District Judge Derrick O’Neill, who handed down the sentence, told Torres directly that he had betrayed the victim in the worst possible way. “You violated that trust in the most egregious way possible,” the judge said, according to the same report, adding that the scar Torres left on the girl would not go away.
Ada County Prosecutor Jan Bennetts said the teenage victim showed extraordinary courage by coming forward about abuse inflicted by someone she should have been able to trust. “Because of her bravery, this defendant will spend decades behind bars,” Bennetts said, framing the sentence as a measure of safety for both the victim and the wider community. The prosecutor’s office also expressed gratitude to the Ada County Sheriff’s Office for its collaboration on the case, the report noted.
What Idaho Law Allows
Under Idaho law, a rape conviction normally carries a minimum sentence of at least one year in state prison, but a district judge has the discretion to extend that term all the way up to life, according to Idaho Code Section 18-6104. That discretion is what allowed O’Neill to impose a life sentence with no possibility of parole for at least 25 years in Torres’s case.
How Other Idaho Sex-Crime Cases Have Ended
Sentences in similar Idaho cases involving sexual offenses against minors have varied widely, though these outcomes are not directly comparable to Torres’s case. Robert Johns, 65, was sentenced to life in prison without parole after a 12-person jury convicted him of sexually abusing two children in acts that occurred between 2017 and 2019, according to the Idaho Statesman; that report also noted Johns had previously served more than 20 years in prison for a first-degree murder conviction before his release in the 2000s.
In another case reported by the Idaho Statesman, Angel Escudero, 27, was sentenced to a combined 30 years in prison after pleading guilty to rape and forcible penetration in two separate workplace incidents, including 20 years with no possibility of parole for 13 years for assaulting a 16-year-old coworker, plus an additional consecutive 10 years fixed for a second assault. Escudero was also ordered to register as a sex offender and have no contact with the victims, the paper reported.
A more recent case out of Idaho Falls ended differently still. A 22-year-old man, Krew Zaugg, was sentenced after pleading guilty to an amended felony count of battery with intent to commit a serious felony, stemming from an assault on a 15-year-old girl in his car on May 4, 2025, according to EastIdahoNews.com. District Judge Michael Whyte ordered Zaugg into a retained-jurisdiction rider program lasting up to one year, after which the judge may still impose an underlying prison term of four to 14 years; Zaugg was also ordered to register as a sex offender, pay at least $4,000 in fines and fees, and have no contact with the victim for 14 years.
