Court upholds molestation conviction, sentence

KINGMAN - An Arizona appellate court upheld a decade-long prison sentence for an El Salvadoran man convicted of molesting a girl while riding a watercraft in Bullhead City.

A Mohave County jury convicted Jose Raul Ramos-Ramirez, 37, in July 2016 of one count of child molestation. He was sentenced a month later to 11 years in prison.

Ramos-Ramirez's appellate attorney argued that there was no evidence that he had sexual motivation in touching the victim. The appellate attorney also argued that the judge failed to give the jury instruction on a lesser crime of attempted child molestation.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled there was enough evidence that Ramos-Ramirez was motivated by sexual interest, that he told the girl not to tell her mother about the incident, and that the judge did not err in not giving the jury instruction on a lesser charge and was not prejudicial against the defendant.

Ramos-Ramirez, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, molested an 11-year-old girl July 4, 2015, while they rode a personal watercraft together on the Colorado River. He was arrested at Community Park in Bullhead City after the girl told her mother that Ramos-Ramirez molested her.

Ramos-Ramirez and the girl rode the watercraft into shallow water when he got off the craft, made inappropriate comments and then inappropriately touched her. After returning to her family, the girl told her mother, who called police.