Honduran national sentenced to 24 years for kidnapping, raping Kansas City woman

A Honduran national was sentenced Friday in a federal court in New Jersey to 24 years in prison for kidnapping his ex-girlfriend in Kansas City and raping her while they traveled to New Jersey.

José Amaya-Vasquez, 33, previously pleaded guilty to kidnapping, engaging in interstate domestic violence and illegally re-entering the U.S. after being deported, according to a news release from U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito’s office.

Amaya-Vasquez attempted to enter the United States illegally in Texas in 2005 and was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. An immigration judge ordered him to be removed from the country.

Nearly 10 years later, Kansas City police arrested Amaya-Vasquez and charged him with domestic assault after he threw a comb at the victim, a Kansas City woman, and pushed her into a table. He was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and was deported, according to the release.

He was soon arrested again by border officials in Texas after illegally entering the U.S. from Mexico. He pleaded guilty to a count of illegal entry and was sentenced to 30 days’ incarceration. He was deported again and barred from re-entering the United States for 20 years. Amaya-Vasquez admitted that he illegally re-entered the country in January 2015, according to the release.

On May 23, 2015, Amaya-Vasquez met the Kansas City woman in the parking lot of the Burlington Coat Factory in Independence. He entered her vehicle, threatened her with a knife, duct-taped her and then took her and her 2-year old child to an abandoned house in Kansas City, where he sexually assaulted the woman at knife-point.

Over the next two days, Amaya-Vasquez took the victim and the child toward New York, stopping at motels in Ohio and New Jersey, and continued to rape the woman. On May 26, 2015, officers from the Bellmawr, N.J., Police Department located the woman in a motel. Amaya-Vasquez escaped but was later arrested a short distance from the motel.

In addition to his prison sentence, Amaya-Vasquez was sentenced to five years of supervised release and ordered to pay $6,100 in restitution to the victim.

This story was originally published April 14, 2018 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Honduran national sentenced to 24 years for kidnapping, raping Kansas City woman."