Colorado man who admitted to having sex with minor in Idaho Falls gets sentence reduced

IDAHO FALLS — A Colorado man has been sentenced after admitting to traveling to Idaho Falls to have sex with a minor.

Carlos Michael Ortega, 31, accepted a plea agreement where he pled guilty to a lesser charge of felony injury of a child. He was originally charged with felony rape when the victim was 16 or 17 years of age.

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According to court records, Ortega was sentenced on Jan. 8 in front of 7th District Judge Bruce Pickett. As part of the plea agreement, the state recommended a term of five years fixed and five years indeterminate for a maximum sentence of 10 years, which was the sentence he was given.

However, on Jan. 24, a motion was filed to reduce his sentence, and a hearing was held on Feb. 4. The hearing was held in front of 7th District Judge Joel Tingey, and Ortega’s sentence was reduced to a two-and-a-half-fixed and five-year indeterminate period.

Ortega was credited for 296 days for time served.

Bonneville County Prosecutor Randy Neal told EastIdahoNews.com that the reduction is up to the presiding judge to decide based on the Idaho Criminal Procedure Code Rule 35. Neal believes the original sentence was correct for this case.

“We argued against this reduction in the sentence. … We are up against a pendulum that has swung very much towards these kinds of sentences that I think the community is not satisfied with,” Neal said.

According to the court documents, on Jan. 25, 2024, Idaho Falls Police took a report from Jefferson County from a 17-year-old girl who was picked up from her home and taken to Idaho Falls by a man, later identified as Ortega.

A forensic interview with the female victim detailed that Ortega had taken her to a hotel at the 2000 block of Channing Way, where she told officers they had sex. The incident occurred on Jan. 6.

The affidavit states that officers spoke with Ortega over the phone, and he confirmed that he traveled from Colorado to the girl’s home. Ortega said they had been talking online and “perceived their relationship to be romantic.”

During this interview, Ortega said the girl told him she was 18 years old, but he later learned she was only 17.

Ortega was incarcerated in the Pueblo County Jail in Colorado during the Idaho investigation. It is not clear why he was incarcerated in Colorado.