Hugo Roberto Sanchez

A Limestone County man accused in 2012 of kidnapping and raping his girlfriend and then holding her overnight against her will has been sentenced after a plea bargain was reached.

Hugo Sanchez, 37, pleaded guilty Friday in Limestone County Circuit Court to first-degree kidnapping in the attack on his girlfriend, who was trying to collect her personal items from their home on Ham Road.

In accordance with the plea agreement, Limestone Circuit Judge Chadwick Wise sentenced Sanchez to 20 years in prison, but the sentence was split so that Sanchez will serve five years in the Limestone County Jail and five years of supervised probation.

Also in accordance with the plea agreement, the state, as represented by the Limestone County District Attorney’s Office, agreed to dismiss counts one and two — two counts of first-degree rape.

Sanchez could have faced a sentence of 10 to 99 years in state prison on each of the three charges because they are Class A felonies.

The case

Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely said at the time of Sanchez’s initial arrest in 2012 his girlfriend called the Sheriff’s Office on July 7 to see if a deputy could stand by as she removed belongings from the house where she lived with Sanchez, who was in the country illegally. The woman, who showed Deputy Tom Gilbert a bruise, spoke limited English, so an interpreter was called to assist in her interview.

Through the interpreter, the woman told Investigator Leslie Ramsey that after she confronted Sanchez about coming home drunk the night before, he shoved her outside, removed her underwear, sprayed her with a garden hose, duct-taped her wrists and sealed her inside the bathroom. Through the interpreter, she said Sanchez raped her when she awoke the next morning, then resealed the bathroom door. Sanchez brought her coffee at one point and later released her, she said.

At one point a civil rights attorney, Eric Hutchins of Alexander, representing Sanchez had requested the case be dismissed for lack of speedy trial, but then he withdrew the request. The case was fast-tracked when Wise was elected to the bench in January, and a June 12 trial date was set. The case was then resolved through the plea agreement.

Sanchez had remained jailed because he was being held for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.