Jul 30, 2013 2 min read

Two Canton Township men were sentenced to federal prison Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier this year to charges they kidnapped and sexually assaulted a mentally disabled woman.

Jose Jesus Tapia Montes, 36, and Elmer Pina Pinto, 44, pleaded guilty in April to aiding and abetting in the transportation of an individual in interstate commerce with intent to engage in illegal sexual activity.

U.S. District Judge Frederick Stamp Jr. of the West Virginia’s Northern District sentenced Montes to serve 30 months in federal prison and Pinto to serve 33 months in jail.

The FBI said they kidnapped a 19-year-old woman in Wheeling, W.Va., in July 2012 and held her in Montes’ home on West Wylie Avenue. The men held the woman captive for four days and sexually assaulted her, federal investigators said.

The FBI said it tracked the men after finding the woman with a gum wrapper in her pocket that had Montes’ name and a phone number on it. Investigators later pulled phone number to Montes’ phone and were able to track him to Wheeling at the same time of the kidnapping.

Montes was arrested last August and Pinto was arrested the following month by U.S. Customs and Immigration officials in Columbus, Ohio, as he attempted to return to Mexico. The men were indicted on numerous federal charges, including kidnapping and conspiracy, shortly after their arrests

Both are now awaiting a decision on where they will serve their sentences.