SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man has been convicted of first-degree felony child rape following an investigation by the Office of the Utah Attorney General.
William Piol Makuei, 60, was convicted earlier this month, nine years after the incident.
Investigators said that in June 2016, the teenage victim was admitted to the University of Utah Hospital, where she was found to be 29 weeks pregnant. The girl was 14 when admitted to the hospital, but 13 when she became pregnant.
Police began interviewing the victim and her family, with the girl saying she had sex several times in 2015 with a man named William. According to the teen, the man was from Sudan and lived in the same refugee community as the teen and her family.
The victim said on one occasion the man gave her something to drink, and she fell asleep. When she awoke, she was nude and was bleeding from her “front part”, according to charging documents.
Police identified Makuei as a suspect based on the victim’s description, and they obtained a DNA sample from the man by collecting a discarded cigarette butt. That sample was taken to a lab, which confirmed Makuei was a match to be the father of the victim’s child, the charging documents state.
Makuei is scheduled to be sentenced on October 16 and is expected to face a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years, with the possibility of life in prison.
