Mexican man gets 35-year prison sentence for holding illegal immigrants hostage in Phoenix

Mexican man sentenced in immigrant hostage case

PHOENIX — A Mexican man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison in connection with holding illegal immigrants hostage last year in a Phoenix drop house.

Prosecutors say 37-year-old Evaristo Ortiz-Jimenez, of Nayarit, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court. He previously pleaded guilty to using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.

Authorities say Ortiz-Jimenez was part of a violent group of human smugglers that held at least 23 illegal immigrants hostage at gunpoint in May 2008.

The hostages later told authorities they were beaten and a 16-year-old girl was sexually assaulted even after her family paid for her release.

Ortiz-Jimenez was the first of four defendants to be sentenced in the case.