Bernalillo County man gets 69 years for abusing Honduran teen
A Bernalillo County jury convicted Alberto Carpio-Villanueva on eight counts after prosecutors said he posed as a girl's uncle and abused her after bringing her from Honduras.
A Bernalillo County judge gave Alberto Carpio-Villanueva the maximum 69-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him of eight counts tied to the sexual abuse of a teenage girl brought from Honduras. Prosecutors said Carpio-Villanueva posed as the girl’s uncle to gain access to her, then assaulted her repeatedly over roughly two months in 2021.
The convictions included three counts of criminal sexual penetration of a minor, two counts of child abuse, two counts of intimidation of a witness and one count of child exploitation. The abuse was reported as happening between April and June 2021, after the girl was brought to New Mexico when she was 15. The case moved through Bernalillo County court and ended with jurors finding Carpio-Villanueva guilty on all eight charges.
The Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office Special Victims Unit prosecuted the case, with unit chief Savannah Brandenburg-Koch and senior trial attorney Sarah Burton handling the presentation to jurors. District Attorney Sam Bregman framed the outcome as a commitment to people who survive sexual violence, saying, “This office will continue to be relentless when it comes to standing up for survivors and victims.”
The case also drew attention beyond the courtroom because it intersected with New Mexico’s handling of immigration-related protections for victims of violent crime. The New Mexico Supreme Court referenced the Bernalillo County matter in a 2024 order on disclosure of immigration-related information about noncitizen crime victims, noting that the girl had been brought from Honduras and had applied for a T visa, a federal remedy available in some trafficking-related cases.
For Bernalillo County investigators and prosecutors, the case turned on building a paper trail around identity, access and repeated abuse inside a home. The Special Victims Unit’s work put the county’s child-protection response in the spotlight, from the initial investigation to the witness intimidation charges that accompanied the sex-crime counts. The sentence now closes the criminal case, but the record left behind reflects how vulnerable minors can be hidden behind family claims, immigration fears and delayed disclosure before local systems intervene.
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