1.888 Years in Jail For the Sexual Abuse of Stepdaughter
Abelardo Artavia Murillo, stood in front of the judges in a Siquirres, Limón court, as he heard the judges dictate his sentence for 208 counts of sexual abuse against his step daughter while she was between the ages of 8 and 12.

The judges sentenced the 68 year old farmer to a total of 1.888 years behind bars. The judges gave him a lower sentence than what the prosecution has asked for - 2.080 years.

However, the man will not serve out more than 36 years in jail, due to the fact that no one can serve more than three times the maximum sentences for this type of crime = 12 years.

And to bring insult to injury, because a number of the crimes were committed under the old rules of the Codigo Penal (Penal Code), Artavia will be required to serve out 25 years, if he outlives the sentence due to his age.

The abused girl, identified by her last name Esquivel, is now 27 years old, cannot erase the memories of her childhood and as a result of her ordeal now suffers traumas in her marriage and daily life, telling the court in the abuse trial that she "feels nothing" when she is with her husband.

The court  heard testimony how the man would threaten her with a machete to re-enforce his words. "He would tell me that if I left the house, I would be reading the news of how my mother and brother were killed", the woman told the court.

The woman had complained of the abuses to her mother, who in turn would ask her husband,  who would deny any such actions. The mother said that she asked her husband one time swear on the Virgen de los Ángeles. And as such they visited the Basílica de los Ángeles in Cartago, where on his knees he swore never to have abused his step-daughter.

At the trial, abused woman's sister also came forward and declared before the court that she too had been abused by Artavia.