WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Prosecutors in Palm Beach County intend to seek the death penalty against two West Palm Beach men accused of sexually abusing a 6-year-old girl, the state attorney's office announced Friday.
A grand jury indicted Josue D. Mendez-Sales, 26, and Pablo N. Cobon-Mendez, 23, in August on multiple counts of sexual battery on a child under 12.
Both defendants remain held without bond at the Palm Beach County jail.
Mendez-Sales is charged with two counts of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age. Cobon-Mendez is also charged with two counts of sexual battery on a person less than 12 years of age.
In a Friday news release, Palm Beach County State Attorney Alexcia Cox described the alleged crimes as "the most horrific imaginable."
"The repeated abuse of a defenseless child, by Josue David Mendez-Sales and Pablo Neftaly Cobon-Mendez, is not only a violation of the law, it is a violation of our deepest human values. In the gravest cases, and when the victims are children, prosecutors have a duty to consider the strongest punishment available; in this case, that is the death penalty. This is about justice, accountability, and protecting the innocent. The law must send a clear and unmistakable message: those who prey on children will face the harshest consequences possible. We must pursue the most severe penalty allowed by law to protect children and make it clear that crimes of this magnitude will never be tolerated. Justice demands that we use every tool at our disposal to hold these offenders fully accountable."
When the men were arrested in July, West Palm Beach Police Department Chief Tony Araujo described the case as "heinous."
