Former El Paso priest convicted of child sex crimes sentenced to 18 years in prison

A former El Paso Catholic priest convicted of sexually assaulting an altar server was sentenced Tuesday evening to 18 years in prison.

Miguel Luna was found guilty on Monday of a dozen charges that included six counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. The assaults took place over a seven-year period back in the 1990s.

The 69-year-old Luna had faced a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The jury handed down 18-year sentences on many of the counts, but the judge ordered that those sentences be served concurrently — meaning at the same time. Had they been imposed consecutively, Luna would’ve faced well over 100 years — effectively a life sentence.

Luna was arrested last year after the victim, now in her 30s, reported the abuse to El Paso police in 2016, stating that the sexual assault began when she was 8 years old.

She testified in court that the assaults lasted from 1991 to 1998.

Officials with the Catholic Diocese of El Paso have said that Luna was ordained in 1982 and removed from the ministry in 2013.