The Church abuse accused faces as much as 16 years in jail, prosecutors mentioned. (Representational)

Los Angeles:

The head of a Mexico-based evangelical megachurch that claims about 5 million followers worldwide pleaded responsible on Friday to felony counts of sexually abusing three youngsters, California state prosecutors introduced on Friday.

The responsible plea was entered in courtroom by Nasson Joaquin Garcia, chief and self-styled apostle of the Guadalajara-based church La Luz del Mundo (Light of the World), three days earlier than he was scheduled to go on trial, in keeping with a press release from the California legal professional common’s workplace.

Sentencing for Garcia, 53, was scheduled for subsequent Wednesday. He faces as much as 16 years and eight months in jail, prosecutors mentioned.

His conviction caps an investigation that started in 2018 resulting in Garcia’s arrest the next 12 months at Los Angeles International Airport with a co-defendant, Susana Medina Oaxaca, who pleaded responsible on Friday to a cost of assault prone to trigger nice bodily hurt, the legal professional common’s workplace mentioned.

Garcia pleaded responsible to 2 counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one depend of a lewd act upon a baby. The fees stem from abuse of three underage victims, prosecutors mentioned.

A second co-defendant, Alondra Ocampo, additionally arrested in 2019, pleaded responsible in 2020 to 3 felony counts of contact with a minor for functions of committing a sexual offense and one depend of forcible sexual penetration.

Garcia, Oaxaca and Ocampo had confronted 36 felony offenses in all, together with fees of rape, human trafficking and baby pornography. The majority of these counts had been dropped in return for the defendants’ responsible pleas.

A fourth particular person charged within the investigation, Azalea Rangel Melendez, stays at massive, prosecutors mentioned.

La Luz del Mundo is the most important evangelical church in Mexico, courting to the Nineteen Twenties, with branches in 50 nations and boasting about 5 million members.

When a Los Angeles decide ordered Garcia to face trial in August 2020, the church issued a press release defending their chief as wrongly accused, saying the fees in opposition to him stemmed from “unsubstantiated anonymous allegations” and “blatant hearsay.”

A La Luz del Mundo spokesman reached by Reuters on Friday mentioned the church would have a press release on the most recent developments later within the day.