By Tracie Sullivan
A former Iron County resident was sentenced to prison last week after a jury found him guilty of raping a coworker in 2021.
Migel Angel Leon Gomez, 28 was handed down a sentence of five-years to life for three first-degree felonies including rape, forcible sodomy and object rape. He also received a sentence of one to 15 years for one count of forcible sexual abuse, a second-degree felony.
Each charge came with its own sentence but were ordered to run concurrently, allowing Gomez to serve them all at once rather than one after another.
Gomez was convicted by an eight-member jury after an emotional three-day trial in April for sexually assaulting a coworker at a Paragonah dairy farm on Halloween morning of 2021.
According to the court documents, Gomez was arrested in Jerome, Idaho in January 2023 and extradited to Utah.
The affidavit, initially filed in 5th District Court by an Iron County Sheriff’s investigator, stated that Gomez was accused of raping and sodomizing an adult female coworker nearly one morning inside a shed at their workplace in Paragonah.
The woman reported the incident to her supervisors. Gomez was terminated and “immediately” moved out of state. However, detectives located him in Jerome, Idaho two years later.
While Gomez told authorities he and the woman had been in a relationship for about three to four months, he was unable to provide officers with her name. The affidavit stated he referred to her only as “guera,” which is Spanish slang for “white girl.”
“Gomez explained that in the early hours of the day on which he was confronted with these allegations, he and ‘guera’ had consensual sex,” the documents state.
During trial, Iron County prosecutor Shane Klenk, described during his closing arguments what the 25-year-old woman experienced as “a nightmare of sight, sound, smell and pain,” as she unsuccessfully tried to prevent the attack.
“She heard herself telling the defendant over and over again, ‘No! Stop! This isn’t happening!” Klenk told the jury.
In contrast, Gomez continued to hold to the narrative that he and the woman were in a relationship and that the incident was consensual.
Klenk argued the victim had undergone “arduous” counseling and therapy to combat her post-traumatic stress disorder and other issues from the traumatic event. He also commended her for her strength in returning to work after the incident occurred.
“Not because she wasn’t bothered by going back to the shed. She continued to work there specifically because of how much it bothered her. She is determined to see that this assault will not define her, that it will not dictate the choices of her life,” Klenk told the jury.
Several letters of support from family members and church leaders written on his behalf prior to sentencing described Gomez as having an upstanding character.