A Ridgeland man followed a 12-year-old girl into a bathroom at a restaurant where he was employed and coerced her into giving him her phone number and address, authorities said. Hours later, he raped her.

Valentin Ariosto Alfronso-Arguello, 38, was sentenced to serve 20 years for sexual battery, announced Madison and Rankin counties' District Attorney John K. Bramlett Jr. Tuesday.

Eight years of Alfronso-Arguello's sentence will be suspended and he will have to serve 12 years in prison. Because he is living in the country illegally, Alfronso-Arguello will be subject to deportation after his prison sentence, Assistant District Attorney Katie Moulds told the Clarion Ledger.

If he's not deported, he will have to register with the Mississippi Sexual Offender Registry and serve five years of supervised probation, said a news release from Bramlett's office.

In August 2018, the 12-year-old girl the girl had been at a Ridgeland restaurant, where Alfronso-Arguello was an employee. The restaurant was not named in the release.

Alfronso-Arguello followed her into the restaurant's bathroom and coerced her to give him her phone number and address, the release said.

The mother woke up around 3 a.m. after the night of the restaurant incident. The light in the victim's bedroom was on, but the girl was not in the house. The mother opened the front door to find her daughter walking into the house and a pickup truck speeding away with one door open, the release said.

Later, the girl told her father that Alfronso-Arguello texted her after his shift ended, saying he wanted to see her. The man was already on his way to her house when she got the text messages.

The victim left her house and got into the truck with Alfronso-Arguello. He raped her after she repeatedly told him "no" and tried to get out of the truck, the release indicated. He held her down and forced himself on her.

The Children's Advocacy Center interviewed the girl and her story was consistent with what she told nurses at a hospital and her father, the release said.

After Alfronso-Arguello was arrested by the Madison County Sheriff's Office, he signed a waiver of rights and provided law enforcement with a statement admitting to having sex with the victim, the release said. A review of his mobile phone showed text messages to and from the victim that supported her statement.

Bramlett said in a statement: “Every day in America young girls are coerced to meet men who have ill intent toward them. Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where a much older man talked a young girl into meeting him and forced her to have sex. Our children are now easier targets for pedophiles and we must continue to seek justice for those who become victims.”

Bramlett applauded the Madison County Sheriff's Office for their work investigating the case. He called Alfronso-Arguello "evil and sick."

"The District Attorney’s office will continue working diligently making sure that those who hurt our children pay the consequences for their sick crimes. We have zero-tolerance for people like Alfronso-Arguello and we will continue working toward ridding our streets of criminals like him," Bramlett's statement said.

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Contact Alissa Zhu at azhu@gannett.com. Follow @AlissaZhu on Twitter.