VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A Norfolk man was sentenced Tuesday to serve 30 years in prison for three counts of raping an 11-year-old girl.

Ricardo Leonel Mejia, 35, formerly of the 7000 block of Mamie Boulevard in Norfolk, was sentenced in Virginia Beach Circuit Court on Tuesday. He pleaded guilty on June 17.

According to the Virginia Beach Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, the evidence showed that on Oct. 9, 2024, the 11-year-old victim’s mother went to check on her child before going to bed but found the door locked. She used a butter knife to pop the lock and found Mejia naked in her daughter’s bed.

The woman yelled for her husband. Mejia jumped out of bed, grabbed some of his clothes and jumped through an open window. The woman recognized him as a man the family had hired to renovate one

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