Ex-priest get life in prison for raping girl

Published: 2003-10-31

TYLER, Texas (CNS) -- A former priest who fled the United States to avoid trial on child rape charges six years ago was sentenced to life in prison Oct. 23 in Tyler. Gustavo Cuello, 40, who jumped bail in Texas and fled to Ecuador after being arrested in 1997 for repeated sexual assaults on a 13-year-old altar girl in Tyler, was extradited this summer and pleaded guilty Oct. 10 to aggravated sexual assault. Cuello had come from South America in 1996 to work at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Tyler. He has admitted that for a period of at least six months in 1996-97 he had sexual relations once or twice a week with the girl. After his 1997 arrest and flight he left the priesthood and married. Following his guilty plea, Smith County District Judge Cynthia Kent sentenced him to 50 years in prison. He rejected that sentence and asked for a jury trial on the punishment phase, taking a chance on a life sentence in hopes of receiving a lighter one than the judge imposed.

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