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Man who lived in city illegally pleads guilty in federal court

YOUNGSTOWN — Baudilio Ramos, 65, a Guatemalan citizen living in Youngstown who served a prison sentence in New York state for sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Cleveland to illegal reentry of a removed alien.

He will be sentenced later.

Magistrate Judge Jennifer Dowdell Armstrong, who presided over Ramos’ hearing, gave the defense until Friday to object to the report and recommendations the magistrate provided to Judge U.S. District Court Judge Pamela A. Barker regarding Ramos’ case, according to court records.

Dowdell Armstrong is recommending that Barker accept Ramos’ guilty plea and that the judge find Ramos guilty, records state. The case has been referred to the federal probation department to prepare a presentence investigation report of Ramos’ criminal history and background.

According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio, Ramos was charged with illegally reentering the United States and living in Youngstown.

He originally came to the United States in 1990 on a commercial visa. In 2013, in Rockland County, New York, he was convicted of sexual abuse in the first degree and endangering the welfare of a child. After serving a prison term, he was deported from the U.S and returned to Guatemala, the news release states.

Ramos said he later paid $3,000 to a “coyote,” a slang term for a human smuggler, who arranged to take him from Mexico into Texas. A second smuggler took him from Houston to New York state. He then relocated to the Youngstown area where he has been living for about the last two years, the release states.

Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Ramos was not registered with the Mahoning County Sex Offender Registry, the release states.

Ramos, who appears to have no criminal record in the Youngstown area, has been in the Mahoning County jail since Feb. 11, according to jail records. He has been held there on a hold by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, jail records state.

A Sept. 21, 2012, article in a Patch newspaper states that Ramos was 53 and living in Spring Valley, N.Y., in the upstate New York area when he was convicted at trial of sexually abusing a young boy.

He was convicted of one count of sexual abuse and one count of endangering the welfare of a child related to sexual touching of a 3-year-old who had been left in his care Sept. 26, 2011, in a church van, the article states.

Ramos was driving the church van to help the victim’s mother in a church-related errand, the article states, quoting from District Attorney Thomas Zugibe. The mother left the child with Ramos while she handled administrative matters.

When she returned to the van, she saw Ramos rubbing the boy’s genitals. She immediately took the boy and left, Zugibe stated, according to the article. Ramos faced up to seven years in prison, but further information on his sentence was not available.

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