No sentence long enough for sexual abuse she endured, woman tells judge

IOWA CITY — A woman, who was incapacitated and repeatedly sexually assaulted as her abuser video recorded the incidents in 2018, told a judge during the man’s sentencing Monday that no sentence was long enough for the trauma she has to live with for the rest of her life.

The woman, who was 19 on Nov. 18, 2018, said in a victim impact statement that she had been with friends drinking at home and then went out to the bars, drinking more. She said she wasn’t in any condition to make a choice to give consent to Carlos Allen Hivento, 34, of Cedar Rapids. He took that choice from her, she said, but now has no choice but to listen.

Hivento found her alone outside and dragged her into a stairwell and filmed it all. She didn’t recall much but remembered hitting her head on something sharp. When she woke up, she didn’t know where she was and there was a bright light shining in her face. He was recording her, and she knew she was in danger.

The woman managed to get her clothes on and get out of the downtown hotel she found herself in.

The police took her to the hospital and a rape kit was collected. She said doctors noticed injuries that she hadn’t. She had bites — “like from an animal” — and there were bruises down her back for every stair he shoved her down on.

Later, she learned he had other victims — other women had reported stories like hers. She recalled Hivento telling her “You were my favorite,” and knew this wasn’t his first sexual abuse.

The woman said she thought so many times about not going through with the charges but continued because she didn’t want her sisters or another woman to have to go through this.

Hivento, before 6th Judicial District Judge Kevin McKeever announced his sentence, denied the woman couldn’t give consent. He said he and the woman were able to have conversations, and he repeatedly told the judge that he knew if the judge watched the recording he could see it.

Hivento, who maintained his innocence at trial, conveyed no remorse in his statement Monday.

McKeever said this case was worse than a typical third-degree sexual abuse because the victim was young, alone and intoxicated. The prosecution had recommended 24 years in prison, but McKeever decided the defendant deserved more.

Hivento was convicted by a jury in July of five felony third-degree sexual abuse charges and two misdemeanor invasion of privacy charges — for a total of up to 54 years in prison. McKeever ran some of the felony sentences concurrently and others consecutively for a total of 34 years in prison.

According to testimony during the trial, the 19-year-old woman wasn’t aware Hivento was recording the sex acts with his cellphone in an apartment stairwell next to the Fieldhouse Bar on the Pedestrian Mall or that the sex acts even happened.

According to testimony, the woman woke up with Hivento on top of her at the Iowa House Hotel on the University of Iowa campus that night.

Video evidence from Hivento’s phone was presented during trial.

McKeever also ordered Hivento to comply with the sex offender registry requirements and be on a special sentence of parole for life.

The prosecution also requested a five-year no-contact order against Hivento to protect the victim.

Hivento still faces a trial for charges of possession of contraband in a correctional facility and possession of a controlled substance, which stem from this sexual abuse case. When Hivento was taken to the Johnson County Jail, deputies recovered a powdery substance in one of his shirt pockets, according to a complaint. Police said it tested positive for cocaine.

This investigation also led to three other women accusing Hivento of similar incidents of sexual assault that occurred before the offenses for which he was just convicted. He is facing three separate trials in those cases.

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