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Illegal Immigrant Sentenced In Palo Alto Elderly Rape

SANTA CLARA (AP) -- An illegal immigrant from Mexico has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for the sex attack of a 94-year-old woman in a Palo Alto nursing home.

A Santa Clara County judge on Thursday sentenced 43-year-old Roberto Recendes, who pleaded guilty to sexual penetration by force and elder abuse for attacking the woman eight years ago at the Palo Alto Commons nursing home.

The plea deal reached in October spared him a longer prison sentence. He could have been sentenced to 25 years to life if convicted on original charges of rape during a burglary.

Recendes was linked to the attack by a DNA sample taken from him following a domestic violence conviction in Sunnyvale in 2004.

(© 2011 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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