Inmate tries to commit suicide while enroute to jail
BROWNSVILLE - A 24-year-old man who had just been sentenced to 50 years in state prison for sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl attempted to commit suicide on Monday, while authorities transported him back to jail from court.
Cameron County Sheriff Omar Lucio said Rolando Saucedo, of Brownsville, used a razor blade to slit his wrists but was unsuccessful. He received superficial cuts and need stitches on his arms.
Jailers have placed Saucedo under suicide watch. They are awaiting paperwork from the court to transfer him to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Institutional Division, the sheriff said.
It is unclear where and how Saucedo obtained the razor blade.
Earlier, State District Judge Arturo C. Nelson sentenced Saucedo to prison after he pleaded no contest to allegations he sexually assaulted the young girl last year. He had had been charged with four counts of sexual assault, two counts of indecency with a child and one count of burglary of habitation.
This is the second sentence for the man who has been serving 50 years in the TDCJ since August 2009 for aggravated sexual assault charges involving a 13-year-old girl back in April 2005.
In the latest case, Saucedo had pleaded no contest to sexually the younger girl.
Saucedo will serve both sentences concurrent, which means he will serve them at the same time.
Nelson sentenced Saucedo in both cases.
Saucedo was arrested last August, when the victim’s 16-year-old brother and 28-year-old sister found him in the young girl’s bedroom and restrained him. Saucedo had been hiding under the covers while the girl had been reading a book, police reports state.
“I did not know she was 10 years old,” Saucedo told Brownsville police officers, as stated in court filings.
Saucedo met the girl at Sunrise Mall about two months earlier. She had been with friends and had approached Saucedo to ask if she could borrow his cell phone to call home, according to court records.
In a statement, Saucedo said the girl had told him she was 17 years old and a junior in high school, although he never asked her which school she attended. The morning he was found at her house, the girl had asked him to bring her a Monster energy drink, Saucedo said in the court document.
“Well I wish I could change what happened between [her] and I,” he said in the statement. “I am sorry. I am very sorry. I have been arrested in the past for having sex with a minor female.”
