An Orange County Superior Court judge agreed Friday to delay the re-sentencing of a convicted child molester but warned the man that he will get 25 years to life in prison when he returns to court in January.

Judge M. Marc Kelly – who sparked a national outcry in 2015 when he initially shaved 15 years from Kevin Jonas Rojano-Nieto’s mandatory minimum sentence – agreed to give a court-appointed attorney more time to pull together information on Rojano-Nietio’s background.

During a hearing Friday at a Newport Beach courthouse, public defender Melani Bartholomew told Kelly she is moving as fast as she can to get the information, noting that she had only been appointed to defend Rojano-Nieto, now 22, less than three months ago.

“My hands are tied,” Bartholomew told the judge, her voice breaking as she cried. “I have not been given the time I need.”

In December 2014, Rojano-Nieto was convicted of sodomizing a three-year-old relative, a crime that carries a mandatory sentence in California of 25-years-to-life in prison. Kelly found that such a sentence in this case would be “cruel and unusual” and reduced Rojano-Nieto’s sentence to 10 years.

Rojano-Nieto, who was 19 at the time, sexually assaulted the girl after she wandered into a Santa Ana garage while he was playing video games. The girl told her mother, and Rojano-Nieto confessed to police.

At the time of the 2015 sentencing, Judge Kelly noted that the crime was “serious and despicable,” but said there was no “violence or callous disregard” for the victim’s well-being and that she did not suffer “serious violent injuries.”

That decision drew condemnation from public officials, as well as a recall effort by victims’ advocates that ultimately fizzled. Earlier this year, a state appeals court overturned the sentence, and ordered that Rojano-Nieto be returned to Orange County to be re-sentenced to at least 25 years behind bars.

On Friday, Bartholomew told Kelly that she needed more time to collect her client’s school records, and to have a psychologist meet with him. Such background information, which Bartholomew said would focus on his youth and immaturity, would not impact his actual sentence but could be brought up when Rojano-Nieto eventually faces a parole board.

Kelly agreed to continue the sentencing until Jan. 12.

But he made it clear to Rojano-Nieto that the judge will ultimately sentence him to the 25-years-to-life sentence required by law.