FORT WORTH, TX -- A 27-year-old Ohio man has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from North Texas.
The Tarrant County District Attorney's office says Stephan Cox was also sentenced to 25 years in prison on two counts of sexual assault of a child and was fined $10,000. He will serve the sentences concurrently.
The girl testified this week that she met Cox through social media. The two took a Greyhound bus to El Paso and later walked across the border to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. She said Cox forced her to have sex, withheld food and threatened to harm her family.
Prosecutors say Mexican authorities located the girl 10 days after she went missing, sent her home and arrested Cox.
Cox's defense attorney Scott Brown could not be immediately reached.