A U.S. District Court jury deliberated nine hours before finding a Rocky Boy man guilty of sexual abuse of a minor.
The trial of Francisco Valencia, 27, lasted two days in Great Falls and ended Monday evening, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Lori Harper Suek, who prosecuted the case.
Valencia will be sentenced in June, Suek said.
Valencia was accused of engaging in sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl on July 9, 1997, when he was 22, Suek said.
The day after, the victim checked herself into Northern Montana Hospital for abdominal pain, which Suek told jurors she believed was a physiological response to the incident,
"I think it was stress-related, that she was making herself sick over what happened," Suek said.
While receiving treatment for her stomach pain, the victim reported the incident to hospital personnel, who forwarded the information to the proper authorities, Suek said.
When he was interviewed in 1997, Valencia denied the incident occurred and, Suek said, "has remained in denial all the way through."
