The leader of a Mexico-based evangelical megachurch was sentenced Wednesday, June 8, to 16 years and eight months in prison for sex crimes involving three underage girls — despite emotional pleas from victims who asked a judge to reject the defendant’s plea deal with prosecutors or sentence him to a far longer prison term.

Naasón Joaquín Garcia — the leader of La Luz del Mundo, or the Light of the World — pleaded guilty Friday to two counts of forcible oral copulation involving minors and one count of a lewd act upon a child who was 15 years old. Each count involved a separate minor.

In addition to his prison time, Garcia is expected to be ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

During an emotional sentencing hearing, five young women and some of their family members pleaded with Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald Coen to set aside the plea agreement between Garcia and the Attorney General’s Office, saying they wanted the religious figure to face trial and more extensive incarceration.

One victim told the judge that the women were ready to face Garcia in trial and were “deprived of that right,” and did not consent to “negotiating with this rapist.”

She asked the judge to reconsider and give the 53-year-old defendant the “maximum sentence.”

Coen, however, apologized to the women and said, “My hands are tied” in terms of the sentence he could hand down. But he told them, “The world has heard you. I promise you that.”

In a statement released after the lengthy hearing, Light of the World referred to Garcia as “the Apostle” and said a “decision has been made to accept an agreement with the Attorney General’s Office to minimize his prison sentence in order to regain his freedom. …

“While he respects the law and the community, he does not believe that the trial he would receive under these conditions would be fair and just,” the statement said. “He wishes to spare the church and his family from weeks of unfounded public accusations.”

One victim wrote in a statement read in court that the victims’ only hope was the fair judicial system in the United States, which she said has “failed us.”

Said another woman, “He took my faith away. He took my purpose away. He used me, used my faith in God and my innocence.”

She said she’ll never forget the day Garcia was arrested in June 2019 and her mother woke her up to go to church to pray for him.

“It made me feel so little and I didn’t even have it in me to fight back,” she told the judge.

Garcia — who has been in custody since his June 3, 2019, arrest — had been set to go on trial this week, along with co-defendant Susana Oaxaca, 27, who pleaded guilty on Friday to assault likely to cause great bodily injury. Oaxaca was sentenced last week to one year of probation, along with time she had already served in jail and on house arrest and six months of psychiatric counseling, according to the Attorney General’s Office.

A third defendant, Alondra Ocampo, 39, pleaded guilty in 2020 to three felony counts of contact with a minor for the purposes of committing a sexual offense and one count of forcible sexual penetration. She is still awaiting sentencing.

The Attorney General’s Office filed the case, which alleged that the crimes occurred in Southern California from June 2015 to June 2019.

Garcia was ordered in August 2020 to stand trial on 23 felony counts, including forcible rape of a minor, forcible oral copulation of a person under 18, unlawful sexual intercourse, lewd act on a child, extortion, conspiracy and possession of child pornography.

State prosecutors alleged in the complaint that Ocampo told a group of minor girls that they were going against God if they went against any desires or wishes of Garcia, whom the church called “the Apostle of Jesus Christ.”

The Guadalajara-based Pentecostal sect has branches in 50 nations and claims more than a million members worldwide.

In its statement released after the sentencing, the church said, “We publicly manifest our support for the Apostle of Jesus Christ; our confidence remains intact in the full knowledge of his integrity, his conduct and his work. … The Apostle will continue ministering to the church.”

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