Diego Perechu-Ecoquij, who at one time lived and worked in Wayne, was sentenced in proceedings in Wayne District Court last week.
A Guatemalan national, Perechu-Ecoquij, 27 was sentenced to three years in prison for a child abuse conviction related to sex acts with a minor. District Judge Mark Johnson handed down the sentence for intentional child abuse not resulting in injury. He has already spent 302 days in jail and will be eligible for release after serving approximately eight more months of his sentence.
The arrest warrant was initially signed in July of 2020, but it was in October of 2023 that Perechu-Ecoquij was arrested in Harris County, Texas. He waived extradition to Nebraska, where bail was set at $750,000. A complaint filed by Wayne County Attorney Amy Miller at that time alleged that Perechu-Ecoquij had subjected the girl to sexual penetration between Oct. 1, 2019 and March 30, 2020. The victim, now age 17, was 12 to 13 years old at the time.
As part of the plea agreeement, Perechu-Ecoquij pleaded no contest in July to child abuse, reducing the maximum possible sentence from 50 years to three years.
