Champaign man sentenced to life for kidnapping, forced labor scheme
URBANA, Ill. (WCIA) — A Guatemalan national living in Champaign will spend the rest of his life in federal prison for crimes stemming from a years-long kidnapping and forced labor scheme that prosecutors said he and his siblings were involved in.
Prosecutors said Domingo Francisco-Juan was the catalyst and driver of the scheme, and he will receive a sentence that prosecutors called “severe and historic.” Francisco-Juan’s crimes fell under the scope of Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, and there hasn’t been a life sentence under that law in over 10 years.
In addition, one of Francisco-Juan’s siblings — Catarina Domingo-Juan — has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for her role in the scheme. Another sibling — Lorenza Domingo-Castaneda — is set to be sentenced. Prosecutors have asked for an identical 20-year sentence.
The three siblings were charged in 2022 with conspiracy to commit forced labor and kidnapping, which they pleaded guilty to last year. Prosecutors said that in 2015, 2018 and 2019, they lured three people, including two young girls, from Guatemala to the United States on the promise to their parents that their children would be cared for as they received an education and a better life in the U.S.
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“But once the victims arrived here in the United States, isolated and afraid, it was a different story, said Kristen Clark, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division at the US Department of Justice. “The defendants immediately broke these promises and ruthlessly exploited the victims for profit with no regard for their rights, dignity or humanity.”
Using physical and psychological abuse, the siblings forced the victims to work menial jobs such as cleaning hotel rooms and working in factories. The victims were never allowed to keep the money they earned or contact their families in Guatemala. The siblings are also said to have used fraudulent documents to lie about the victims’ ages and claim that the victims were their relatives, giving them custody and control of them.
“What these young women were forced to endure at the hands of these defendants was nothing short of a nightmare,” said Gregory Harris, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Illinois. “For two of the women, this involuntary servitude constituted a significant part of their childhood.”
One of the victims was just 10 years old when she arrived in the United States in December of 2015. Prosecutors said she remained with the siblings through January of 2021.
Harris said the sentence imposed on the siblings, including the life sentence for Francisco-Juan, reflect the gravity of their crimes. Clark added that several things made this case different than previous cases over the last decade, none of which resulted in a life sentence.
“The kidnapping count here makes this case unique, and it is the sentencing guidelines tied to the kidnapping count that really resulted in the life sentence imposed on defendant Domingo Francisco-Juan. And then certainly the age of the victims here,” Clark said. “Those aspects, along with the heinous forced labor scheme that included grueling work, cleaning hotel rooms and factory work, make this case as particularly pernicious.”
Harris and Sean Fitzgerald, a Special Agent in Charge with Homeland Security Investigations in Chicago, commended the cooperation between local and federal law enforcement agencies in bringing the siblings to justice. Those agencies included the Champaign Police Department, the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, Illinois State Police, FBI and U.S. Marshals Service.
“It was only through their combined efforts that we were able to bring these offenders to justice,” Harris said. “I am grateful for all of their work.”
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