Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office investigators and deputies arrested Kenneth Moreno Guzman, 26, Jan. 15 for allegedly invading a family’s mobile home early Monday, Jan. 12, raping an 11-year-old girl and holding her and her 10-year-old sister at knifepoint.

Last Friday, the Sheriff’s Office announced that 10 distinct felony criminal charges, totaling 20 counts, were being filed against Guzman, who was identified as a resident of Eagle Creek Mobile Home Park off U.S. Highway 301 south of Statesboro’s bypass, but whose immigration status reportedly remained to be determined.

BCSO Investigator Kodi Wallis, who is leading the investigation, and Capt. Todd Hutchens, who heads the Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigations Division held a press conference last Friday afternoon.

Guzman is “currently in our jail, and he will be there until we have further court proceedings,” Hutchens said.

Rape, statutory rape, aggravated child molestation, aggravated sodomy and cruelty to children in the first degree topped the list. The other charges reportedly named in the warrants are first-degree home invasion, false imprisonment, burglary, two counts of aggravated assault with a knife and 10 felony counts of possession of a knife during commission of a crime (each knife charge being linked to one of the previously listed counts).

“Basically, this happened early morning hours of the 12th,” Hutchens said. “He came into this family’s home and forcibly raped this 11-year-old girl at knife-point, and so he was in possession of a knife when this happened… .

“You’ll see the list of charges includes two counts of aggravated assault,” the BCSO captain continued. “One will be on the 11-year-old victim, who is also the victim of the rape. One will be on the 11-year-old’s sister, who was 10, who was in the room, and Guzman, the arrested, also threatened the 10-year-old girl with a knife.”

In response to reporters’ questions, Hutchens stated that the 10-year-old was not sexually assaulted but that the 11-year-old was.

The arrested suspect and the victims “live in close proximity to each other, but according to the victim or the victim’s family, they do not actually know this particular person,” the captain also answered. “They had seen him in the area, but did not know him.”

One TV news reporter asked about motive. “Motive is going to be, this 26-year-old has a major problem,” Hutchens said. Investigators, he said, believe that Guzman forcibly broke into the back door of the mobile home in the middle of the night “because he had previously seen this 11-year-old girl” and “claimed he was attracted to her.” The Sheriff’s Office had found no history of previous sexual assault allegations against Guzman, but this was still under investigation.

Immigration status

Hutchens said agents with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE – interviewed Guzman and determined he entered the country illegally from Mexico about five years ago.

As a result, Hutchens said “ICE issued a detainer that requires ICE has to be notified prior to Guzman being released from Bulloch County custody. And I will tell you that he will not be released from Bulloch County custody under any circumstances until the case is disposed of in court. So, he will remain in our custody throughout the court proceedings and likely go from our custody to the prison system.”

While a preliminary hearing has not been set, Hutchens said he expects Guzman will be denied bond. He said Guzman’s case would most likely then be assigned to the public defender’s office and they would decide if they want to request a full bond hearing.

Hutchens said he expects the District Attorney’s Office to present the case against Guzman to a Bulloch County grand jury in February. He said Bulloch County investigators have not found any criminal record for Guzman, beyond misdemeanors.

He noted that, if convicted, the accused could face potential prison sentences of 25 years to life on several of the alleged crimes. That is so for rape and aggravated sodomy, and potential sentences for aggravated child molestation also range up to life in prison in certain circumstances under Georgia law.

The ICE detainer also means that if Guzman is convicted and serves out a prison sentence, he will be taken into custody by ICE for deportation, Hutchens said.

Incident to arrest

After their assailant fled from the house, the sisters, ages 11 and 10, went to the other end of the home, where the mother and stepfather were, and told them what had happened, Hutchens said. The parents then immediately called the Sheriff’s Office. This was very early Monday, not long after midnight, according to the investigators.

Working at first from who they thought he was and his first name, the investigators took a couple of days to identify Guzman as the suspect and a vehicle he was driving. This led to a traffic stop, based on his failure to appear in a previous traffic case, Hutchens said.

Bulloch County State Court records show that a bench warrant was issued for Guzman in June 2023 and a bond forfeiture ordered after he failed to appear in court on misdemeanor charges of allegedly driving an unregistered vehicle without a valid license or insurance.

Jan. 15 traffic stop

Deputies from the Sheriff’s Office Patrol Division, along with Wallis and some of the other investigators, made the arrest Thursday afternoon. They had monitored the vehicle coming back toward Statesboro from the area of Interstate 16 and made the stop on the bypass.

Guzman was arrested without further incident, and Wallis then interviewed him at the jail with assistance from a deputy who speaks fluent Spanish. Hutchens said, “He gave us a lot of information that is consistent with the application of these charges.”

Guzman is being held without bond and has not yet had a hearing, according to the sheriff’s officers.

BCSO investigators were satisfied to have made a relatively quick arrest, their captain said.

“Our whole criminal investigation unit worked on this, once this came to light and we began trying to identify the suspect, and it is trying on the whole unit,” he said. “But now that we have this particular person in jail, we know that he will not be able to victimize anybody else right now, and hopefully not forever.”

If anyone has further information about this case or Guzman’s previous contacts, the sheriff’s department asks that they call Investigator Wallis at (912) 764-2715