Man Charged With Raping Cousin, Trying to Kill Fetus
A week after a 14-year-old girl claimed to have found a baby outside her La Puente home, authorities filed rape and attempted murder charges against her 19-year-old cousin, who allegedly impregnated the girl, punched her in the stomach during her pregnancy and then forced her to abandon the infant.
Jesse William Cortez of La Puente entered a not guilty plea Wednesday to charges of attempted murder of a fetus, forcible lewd acts with a child under 14, forcible rape and continuous sexual abuse of a child, and two counts of making terrorist threats.
Prosecutors contend that Cortez began having sex with his cousin when she was 9 years old. She became pregnant last year.
“Cortez told her that he would kill the fetus before it was born and punched her in the stomach,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Daniel Baker.
On Jan. 2 the teenager secretly gave birth to a girl. On Jan. 7, Cortez allegedly told his cousin to call the police and tell them she found an abandoned baby, or he would kill the child, Baker said.
Cortez was being held Wednesday on $1-million bail.
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