Las Vegas, NM teacher sentenced to 7.5 years for raping 14-year-old student
A former Las Vegas, New Mexico middle school teacher was sentenced Thursday to seven and a half years in prison after admitting he raped a 14-year-old student. Leonard Romero, 26, pleaded guilty in May to four counts of sexual penetration as a school employee and one count of criminal sexual contact of a minor as a person of authority.
Prosecutors said the abuse began in 2021, when Romero, then a teacher at Memorial Middle School, began texting one of his eighth-grade students outside of school. They said the contact escalated until the victim would sneak out of her house to meet Romero, where she was raped multiple times.
The victim’s mother addressed Romero directly in court.
“It has been the most heart-wrenching experience of my life,” the mother said. “To watch my child temporarily lose confidence, self-worth and worked through believing she was at fault. She was never at fault, and did absolutely nothing wrong. She was a child who was a victim of a highly sophisticated manipulator and predator, a lowly snake.”
Romero’s defense attorney said his client is remorseful and seeking treatment.
“He messed up big. He committed major crimes and he has an incredible amount of guilt and shame about this, and he is getting into sex offender treatment, trying to become a better man,” the attorney said. “He doesn’t want anything like this to happen again.”
The judge sentenced Romero to 10 and a half years, with three years suspended, leaving seven and a half years to serve. Romero will also be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
