LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — A former Las Cruces police detective faces a lengthy prison term after being sentenced in a sex case involving minors.
State District Judge Fernando Macias on Monday sentenced former Detective Michael Garcia to 30 years in prison but suspended 10 years of the sentence.
Garcia was convicted of multiple counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor.
He was initially arrested in August 2013 and accused of sexually assaulting a minor and then arrested again in September 2013 on additional charges involving another victim.
Garcia has already received a nine-year federal sentence in a case involving a teenage girl who was an intern with the Police Department in 2013.
The sentences will run at the same time, with Garcia serving the federal sentence first.