The February-term Bulloch County grand jury on Tuesday returned an indictment formally charging Keinth Moreno Guzman, age 26, with 20 felony counts in the alleged knife-point rape of a child, aggravated assault of her and her sister and invasion of their family’s home off U.S. Highway 301 south of Statesboro “on or about” Jan. 11.

A true-billed indictment is not a determination of guilt, but it is a finding by at least a majority of the grand jurors, which in this case were 23 in number, that enough evidence exists by probable cause for the charges to go to trial.

The charges in the indictment against Guzman include one count each of rape, aggravated child molestation, enticing a child for indecent purposes, home invasion in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, child molestation, false imprisonment and cruelty to children in the first degree, plus two counts of aggravated assault and 10 counts of possession of a knife during commission of felony.

Two of the charges originally listed by the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office when Guzman’s arrest was announced on Feb. 16 had been replaced by different charges in the indictment. Chief Assistant District Attorney Jillian Gibson of the Ogeechee Judicial Circuit D.A.’s Office reportedly presented the indictment before the grand jury, with Lt. Walter Deal of the BCSO Criminal Investigation Division listed as “prosecutor” in the sense of lead law enforcement witness.

In the indictment, the charge of enticing a child for indecent purposes replaced the originally listed count of statutory rape, and a simple child molestation charge took the place of the earlier mention of an aggravated sodomy count. But the total number of counts remained the same from the arrest to the indictment.

The charge descriptions in the indictment refer to the two victims variously as “a child under the age of 16 years,” “under 14 years of age” and “under the age of 18” in apparent reference to threshold ages in the various laws.

During a press conference the week of the reported crime and Guzman’s arrest, Capt. Todd Hutchens, who heads the Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigations Division, reported that the forcible-rape victim was an 11-year-old girl and that Guzman was accused of holding her and her 10-year-old sister at knifepoint.

Investigators 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,” Hutchens said.

After their assailant fled, the sisters 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.

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.

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.

Agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement – ICE – interviewed Guzman and determined he entered the country illegally from Mexico about five years ago, Hutchens reported the week after the arrest

As a result, “ICE issued a detainer that requires ICE has to be notified prior to Guzman being released from Bulloch County custody,” Hutchens said. “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.”

Guzman is slated to appear before Judge Ronald K. “Ronnie” Thompson in Bulloch County Superior Court on Feb. 25 for arraignment – a formal reading of the charges and opportunity to enter a plea – and a bond hearing.

Guzman’s first name was first released as “Kenneth” by investigators but now appears as “Keinth” in the indictment and recent scheduling documents.