Man gets life sentence in child’s sexual assault

A young girl faced the man who abused her on Tuesday just before he was sentenced to 25 years to life for sexual assault of a child un-der the age of 16.

“You hurt me in so many ways,” the child said during a victim impact statement. “I hope that karma comes back to you.”

Anthony Robert Diaz, 45, admitted to the charge just 11 days before a March 13-17 trial. He has been in custody since his March 9, 2022, arrest for multiple sex acts that occurred between 2014 and 2018 when the victim was younger than 10 years old.

Prosecutor Chelsea Mazza lauded the child’s courage in pursuing the case, saying Diaz had threated to kill family members if his deeds were reported.

“He shows no remorse,” Mazza said. “He shifted the blame to the vic-tim. She was depressed and thinking of harming herself.”

Mazza said the girl decided to endure Diaz’ attention to keep her family safe.

In his statement as part of his presentence investigation, Diaz de-nied what he did despite admitting the charge.

“There’s a lot of truth that didn’t come out,” he said.

Attorney Nadine Morton, in an effort to counter Diaz’ statement, said he was trying to save face.

“Mr. Diaz accepts his responsibility,” she said. “He didn’t make the victim endure a trial.”

Mazza said that if they’d gone to trial she would have presented ev-idence including statements Diaz made to investigators and a re-cording where the victim talked to him on a monitored line where she said he essentially admitted the acts.

“None of this is your fault,” District Judge Tod Young told the girl. “You have every right to move forward with your life free of fear. You are not destroyed.”

Young reminded Diaz that when asked if he had committed the of-fense, Diaz said “yes.”

“You made an effort to destroy a child for your own perverted pleasure,” Young said.

Young ordered the recording of the proceeding sealed.

Should Diaz ever be up for parole, Young asked that the parole board review the written transcript which he ordered attached to the presentence investigation.

Should that day ever arrive, Diaz would be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He was given credit for 406 days time served.

Diaz has a long criminal history with four felony convictions and 17 misdemeanors.

According to court documents, Diaz has a history of domestic vio-lence and harassment charges. In 2018, he received a suspended sentence on one harassment charge and spent 364 days in Douglas County Jail on another charge and in 1997 he served a 6-year pris-on sentence on a California charge.

He served 1-4 years on a charge of failure to stop for an officer out of Carson City in 2018, and was paroled in November 2019, accord-ing to the Nevada Department of Corrections.

Diaz is the second sex offender to be sentenced in this month.

Jose Luis Guerra III, 37, received 4-10 years in prison on April 3 for lewdness with a minor.

Guerra admitted plying a 14-year-old runaway with alcohol and marijuana as part of what prosecutors referred to as extended sexual conduct.

According to court documents, the crime began June 1, 2022, and lasted until Guerra’s Nov. 8, 2022, arrest, when the girl was found in his home.

Prison records indicate that Guerra is being housed at Northern Nevada Correctional Center.