Area Man Charged With Sexually Abusing Step-Daughters

Prior Lake's Erick Garza Armenta, 36, was charged Wednesday with multiple counts of sexually molesting his two Burnsville-based step-daughters. 

Burnsville police officers arrested Armenta at his Eden Prairie workplace on Monday and Dakota County prosecutors formally charged him Wednesday night.  

According to the criminal complaint against Armenta, between 1997 and 2002 Armenta engaged in multiple acts of sexual penetration with his step-daughter who was five years old at the time of the first incident.

His now 18-year-old step-daughter told police that Armenta "made her do things to him when she was a little girl." During her interview on Tuesday, the step-daughter described multiple accounts of forced molestation, oral sex and intercourse that occurred in Dakota, Scott and Rice counties.   

According to the complaint, Armenta's current wife was talking to her daughter—Armenta's second step-daughter—about the situation when the daughter revealed similar abuse at the hands of Armenta.

During her Tuesday interview, the second step-daughter told police that one night in the spring of 2010, while sleeping in her mother and step-father's bed, she awoke to find her shirt pulled up and Armenta's hand on her bare breast.

The step-daughter said she was frightened because she could tell Armenta was awake during the incident. She said she eventually fell back to sleep and when she awoke, Armenta was gone. The step-daughter was less than 13 year's old at the time of the incident.

Armenta is being held in the Dakota County Jail on $400,000 bail while he awaits an omnibus hearing on May 9. 

If convicted of both felony charges, Armenta could face as much as 55 years imprisonment and a $75,000 fine.

But based on Minnesota sentencing guidelines, if convicted, Armenta will likely face less than 20 years behind bars.