Honduran national gets prison followed by deportation after raping child
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IDAHO FALLS — A Honduran national is facing a 26-year sentence and will later be deported after pleading guilty to lewd conduct with a seven-year-old girl.
Jose Everado Vidal Leonor was originally charged in June 2025 with felony rape, where the victim is under the age of 16, and the perpetrator is over the age of 18.
In October, a plea agreement was signed by Leonor, who agreed that, in exchange for a guilty plea, the rape charge was amended to lewd conduct with a minor under 16.
District Judge Michael Whyte sentenced Leonor to six years fixed and 20 years indeterminate, after which he believes Leonor will be deported. He will also be required to register as a sex offender.
Leonor was also required to pay over $3,000 in court fines and fees. He was also credited with time served in jail, which was nine months.
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On June 18, court documents detail the incident leading to Leonor’s arrest when witnesses found Leonor was naked and on top of the seven-year-old girl.
A forensic interview with the victim corroborated what the witnesses saw, and that the victim also had pain in her genital area.
Issues and language barriers
Leonor’s attorney, John Thomas, spoke to the court about issues his client faced during the course of getting his psychosexual evaluation.
He said that Leonor, who doesn’t speak English, couldn’t read or write in Spanish either. This is also, even though an interpreter was there to assist him.
This caused some issues with the overall presentence report, as his answers to many questions could not be conclusively determined to be truthful. This also affected a polygraph test that was not finished, as the polygrapher believed Leonor was attempting to skew the test.
However, despite this issue, Thomas agreed with the presentence investigation’s recommendation that places Leonor at low risk of reoffending and that there are no major offenses in his criminal history.
The recommendation was that Leonor serve only three months, having already served nine months in jail, and then be handed over to federal agents to begin the deportation process.
Serious aggravating factors
The state, being represented by Bonneville County Prosecutor Steven Harderlie, had issues with the recommendation given the presentence investigation report due to the nature of the crime and the aggravating factors therein.
Referring to the passing of House Bill 380, which includes a new crime charge of aggravated lewd conduct, which carries the possible punishments of a minimum sentence of 30 years, as well as the death penalty if aggravating factors are found, Haderlie said that this case meets those qualifications.
The issue is that Leonor committed these crimes just a few weeks before this law took effect.
Regarding the aggravating factors, Haderlie said that Leonor had penetrated the victim, was in a parental authority over the victim, and used force or coercion during the incident.
“The state believes this is an extremely serious crime. We have our top concern was the seven-year-old child involved in this crime,” Haderlie said.
While the report’s recommendation suggests that Leonor be sentenced to a term to be served at a local jail, then handed over to federal agents, this reduces the severity of the crime he committed.
Haderlie recommended that Leonor serve a unified sentence of 25 years, with eight of those years to be served in prison.
Leonor statement
Before being sentenced, Leonor told the court that he was seeking God’s forgiveness for his actions and that he wanted to apologize to his wife and family.
“I swear that this will never happen again,” Leonor said, “Nothing like this has ever happened in my life, and I’m very sorry.”