Jesse Vargas, a former youth pastor, has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for sexually abusing a Missouri teen.
Vargas met the victim when she was 11 years old at a religious camp in Michigan where he worked. She said he began abusing her, and over four years "played with [her family] like frogs in a pot," slowly increasing the intensity of the abuse.
In 2013, when the victim was 15, Vargas had gained the trust of her family and traveled to St. Louis to stay with them, then he sexually abused her. He abused her again later that year, and also sent explicit text messages to her.
Vargas pleaded guilty in March to two felony counts -- travel with the intent to engage in illicit sexual contact and coercion and enticement of a minor.
Vargas had asked for eight years in prison, saying he was a "changed man," but the victim, now in her twenties, asked the judge to throw the book at him -- and asked that he be put away for 15 years -- saying he had forever scarred her and taken away her childhood.
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