Albany business owner sentenced after sex abuse plea

An Albany business owner will spend the next eight years in prison after pleading no contest Wednesday to two counts of first-degree sex abuse.

Santos Aquilino Lima Flores, 54, owner of Lima Family Auto sales, was arrested on July 18, 2016, after a 15-year-old girl accused him of having coerced her into his truck, where he sexually assaulted her, talked her into drinking beer, and then tried to make arrangements to meet with her later on in the parking lot of the YMCA.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Lima Flores picked up the girl on the evening of June 30, 2016 and drove her into the countryside, where he forced himself upon her. The document also alleges that Lima Flores drove the girl to a convenience store and purchased beer, later pulling into the Subway parking lot at Pacific Boulevard and Queen Avenue, where he continued the same behavior with the girl.

The affidavit also reports that after Lima Flores drove to the Albany skate park with the girl, she ran from the truck to a nearby home, where the homeowner called police. After a series of recorded phone calls between the girl and Lima Flores, during which Lima Flores and the girl discussed what had happened and what he would like to do with her next, Lima Flores called the girl's mother multiple times during the night, asking for the girl.

Lima Flores told Albany Police Department detective Jason Camillo the girl had asked for a ride and that she was "trying to set him up." He also admitted to having touched her in an inappropriate way, and told the detective he has a problem with methamphetamine.

Lima Flores, who came to the United States 14 years ago and established roots in Albany, told the Democrat-Herald in a 2009 interview regarding his business that he had served six years as a soldier during the civil war in El Salvador, and that he was a former member of a gang he called "the crazy mafioso." In the same interview, he said "Jesus came into my life and gave me a new direction."

As a condition of the plea agreement, one charge of first-degree kidnapping was dropped.

According to court records, Lima Flores served probation and community service for a prostitution charge in 1995.