PAINESVILLE, Ohio -- An undocumented Mexican immigrant was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for killing a 60-year-old woman, shooting a woman in a park and trying to rape a 14-year-old girl.

Juan Razo will not be eligible for parole as part of a deal struck last month with Lake County prosecutors that took the death penalty off the table.

Razo, 36, pleaded guilty in March to 16 charges including aggravated murder in the violent July crime spree that sparked national debate about illegal immigration.

Razo's crimes began the morning of July 27, when a 14-year-old girl reported that Razo tried to rape her at Helen Wyman Park in Concord Township. Lake Metroparks rangers did not find Razo when they raided his house on Lusard Street in Painesville.

Lake County Sheriff's Deputies then received a report that Razo opened fire on a woman walking with her children on the bike path at the Metroparks Greenway Corridor, less than a mile from Helen Wyman Park. A bullet struck the woman's arm.

Margaret Kostelnik's husband reported a short time later that he found his wife shot to death in their house on Ravenna Road. The house sits directly behind the site of the other shooting.

Minutes later, a Concord Township resident reported that a man -- later identified as Razo -- was standing in his backyard with a rifle.

Three officers arrived and spotted Razo, who pointed the gun at them and appeared to fire a shot. The officers returned fire, missing Razo as he hid behind a boulder, the Lake County Sheriff's Office said at the time.

Razo eventually surrendered.

Razo's arrest sparked a debate about illegal immigration when it was revealed that Painesville police encountered Razo more than three weeks before the crime spree, but border control agents declined to detain him.

The revelation led city and police officials to issue a statement denying that Painesville -- home to one of Northeast Ohio's largest Hispanic communities -- is a sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.

Lake County Sheriff Daniel Dunlap, a Republican, defended his deputies by saying that "current rules and regulations are making it extremely difficult for any police officer on the street to know which laws they can or cannot enforce in the area of undocumented persons."

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