Ugh, they should lock this asshole up with Melissa Huckaby and let them rot away together.MERCEDES — The now abandoned farmhouse on Mile 11 Road North looks much as it did during the horrific day 4-year-old Lesley Perez spent there.
Empty liquor bottles lay scattered across the living room floor, dirty clothes have collected in piles in the corners and various bits of trash litter the entryway.
Here, investigators say, Christian Elijahlee McMillan held the young girl captive for nearly 24 hours, bound her with zip ties and sexually assaulted her over and over again.
But it was in a courtroom nearly 40 miles away Friday that McMillan, a 23-year-old former carnival worker, first seemed to realize the seriousness of what allegedly occurred there.
Wracked by sobs, McMillan stood hunched over and hid his face from those gathered in the room. As Judge William C. Romo formally charged him with aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault of a child, he looked up and pleaded through tears, "I just want to die."
McMillan had expressed little remorse up until that moment, despite providing a full confession, Hidalgo police said Friday.
But even after neighbors, friends and colleagues had learned the full extent of the allegations against him, those details seemed to provide no explanation at all as to what could have pushed the mild-mannered man they knew down such a disturbing path.
"It's hard to believe," said Jaime Sarmiento. "He used to have girlfriends come around. I never noticed anything."
Sarmiento first met McMillan last year when the man arrived in Mercedes with a group who sold stuffed animals on the side of Business 83. The salesmen set up shop across from Sarmiento's Best Tire Shop and within weeks McMillan came asking for work.
"I tried to take care of him and throw some work his way," Sarmiento said.
Tire shop employees could recall few problems with their former co-worker, but Sarmiento said he could be gruff with customers.
Concern over that attitude prompted his boss to help McMillan find another job at R&L Farms, north of Mercedes. The managers there put him up in the small farmhouse, where he continued to live even after leaving for another job at a loan collection center in Weslaco.
Neighbors described McMillan as quiet and subdued but maintained they knew very little about him - and certainly nothing about his past history as a sexual predator.
A California juvenile court convicted McMillan at the age of 9 of molesting two other children, police in Citrus Heights, Calif., said. While he registered once as a sex offender in 2007, he failed to report himself thereafter in the Sacramento suburb.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office is currently pursuing charges against him for failing to register upon his arrival in Mercedes last year.
Despite that record, McMillan appeared to have put all that behind him. In the 14 years since his first offense, he has never been convicted of another crime.
Then, this week, something happened to change that, court documents suggest.
McMillan told a judge Friday that he lost his job last week at the Weslaco loan center. A few days later, Sarmiento dealt him another blow.
The former tire shop employee approached his ex-boss and asked permission to date his 17-year-old stepdaughter.
"He wanted permission," Sarmiento said. "I told him, ‘No way.'"
Then Tuesday, investigators believe McMillan took the drastic step that landed him in handcuffs again.
After casing Lesley Perez's home for several days, McMillan saw the 4-year-old playing outside with a group of other children, drove past and swooped her into his car without even bothering to stop, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in his case.
He drove her to a sugar cane field outside of town and sexually assaulted her, hidden behind the tall reeds, the document states. From there, he allegedly took her back to the Mercedes farmhouse, tied her up and raped her again before calling a friend in Houston to report what he had done.
Authorities eventually tracked down McMillan on Wednesday night, working from information provided by his confidant.
But despite the aggressive actions he later confessed to police, he still showed signs of the subdued nature those who knew him here remembered, the police affidavit states.
He referred to his captive as "the little one" during conversations with police, investigators said. And Lesley later told her relatives McMillan fed her marshmallows throughout the ordeal.
During Friday's arraignment hearing, McMillan spoke softly, his head bowed to mask his tears.
"Get yourself together, sir," said Romo, the municipal judge, as he stared at photos of his own two young daughters perched on his bench. "This is just the beginning."
As of late Friday night, McMillan remained in the Hidalgo County jail on a $1 million bond. He could face up to life in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted.
Empty liquor bottles lay scattered across the living room floor, dirty clothes have collected in piles in the corners and various bits of trash litter the entryway.
Here, investigators say, Christian Elijahlee McMillan held the young girl captive for nearly 24 hours, bound her with zip ties and sexually assaulted her over and over again.
But it was in a courtroom nearly 40 miles away Friday that McMillan, a 23-year-old former carnival worker, first seemed to realize the seriousness of what allegedly occurred there.
Wracked by sobs, McMillan stood hunched over and hid his face from those gathered in the room. As Judge William C. Romo formally charged him with aggravated kidnapping and sexual assault of a child, he looked up and pleaded through tears, "I just want to die."
McMillan had expressed little remorse up until that moment, despite providing a full confession, Hidalgo police said Friday.
But even after neighbors, friends and colleagues had learned the full extent of the allegations against him, those details seemed to provide no explanation at all as to what could have pushed the mild-mannered man they knew down such a disturbing path.
"It's hard to believe," said Jaime Sarmiento. "He used to have girlfriends come around. I never noticed anything."
Sarmiento first met McMillan last year when the man arrived in Mercedes with a group who sold stuffed animals on the side of Business 83. The salesmen set up shop across from Sarmiento's Best Tire Shop and within weeks McMillan came asking for work.
"I tried to take care of him and throw some work his way," Sarmiento said.
Tire shop employees could recall few problems with their former co-worker, but Sarmiento said he could be gruff with customers.
Concern over that attitude prompted his boss to help McMillan find another job at R&L Farms, north of Mercedes. The managers there put him up in the small farmhouse, where he continued to live even after leaving for another job at a loan collection center in Weslaco.
Neighbors described McMillan as quiet and subdued but maintained they knew very little about him - and certainly nothing about his past history as a sexual predator.
A California juvenile court convicted McMillan at the age of 9 of molesting two other children, police in Citrus Heights, Calif., said. While he registered once as a sex offender in 2007, he failed to report himself thereafter in the Sacramento suburb.
The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office is currently pursuing charges against him for failing to register upon his arrival in Mercedes last year.
Despite that record, McMillan appeared to have put all that behind him. In the 14 years since his first offense, he has never been convicted of another crime.
Then, this week, something happened to change that, court documents suggest.
McMillan told a judge Friday that he lost his job last week at the Weslaco loan center. A few days later, Sarmiento dealt him another blow.
The former tire shop employee approached his ex-boss and asked permission to date his 17-year-old stepdaughter.
"He wanted permission," Sarmiento said. "I told him, ‘No way.'"
Then Tuesday, investigators believe McMillan took the drastic step that landed him in handcuffs again.
After casing Lesley Perez's home for several days, McMillan saw the 4-year-old playing outside with a group of other children, drove past and swooped her into his car without even bothering to stop, according to the probable cause affidavit filed in his case.
He drove her to a sugar cane field outside of town and sexually assaulted her, hidden behind the tall reeds, the document states. From there, he allegedly took her back to the Mercedes farmhouse, tied her up and raped her again before calling a friend in Houston to report what he had done.
Authorities eventually tracked down McMillan on Wednesday night, working from information provided by his confidant.
But despite the aggressive actions he later confessed to police, he still showed signs of the subdued nature those who knew him here remembered, the police affidavit states.
He referred to his captive as "the little one" during conversations with police, investigators said. And Lesley later told her relatives McMillan fed her marshmallows throughout the ordeal.
During Friday's arraignment hearing, McMillan spoke softly, his head bowed to mask his tears.
"Get yourself together, sir," said Romo, the municipal judge, as he stared at photos of his own two young daughters perched on his bench. "This is just the beginning."
As of late Friday night, McMillan remained in the Hidalgo County jail on a $1 million bond. He could face up to life in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted.
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