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Keith Vallejo is led out by a bailiff after finding out that he will be put into custody until a sentencing hearing Thursday, March 30, 2017, in Provo. DOMINIC VALENTE, Daily Herald

Dominic Valente, Daily Herald

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Vallejo

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A sex offender convicted of sexually abusing and raping two underage girls has been sentenced to time in prison.

Keith Vallejo, 43, was sentenced Wednesday in Fourth District Court by Judge Thomas Low to spend five years to life in the Utah State Prison after being found guilty in a February jury trial of one first-degree felony of object rape and 10 second-degree felonies of forcible sexual abuse.

The second-degree felonies will run concurrent to the first-degree felony sentence. Ryan McBride, deputy Utah County attorney, said according to the sentencing matrix, Vallejo’s first chance of parole will likely be in about eight years.

According to court records, Vallejo, a former bishop with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sexually assaulted a teenage girl multiple times by touching her inappropriately in April 2013. Months later, Vallejo performed the same inappropriate acts on another girl, “several times per week,” court records state.

“One of the biggest aggravating factors in my mind, besides the fact that he had more than one victim and that he did this on many occasions, is that he never accepted any responsibility for this,” McBride said.

Vallejo, upon conviction, wasn’t taken into custody and for more than a month, was a free man, despite being found guilty of rape.

Low rescinded his judgment to allow Vallejo to walk free after McBride filed a motion to reconsider in late March.

“In court, I invited him (Vallejo) to take responsibility. I said he has the chance to take the blame that many of his friends place on the victims,” McBride said. “And he did not.”