LEBANON — A suspected illegal immigrant was sentenced to prison Thursday after impregnating a 14-year-old girl.

William Cuellar, 24, of Loveland, was sentenced to 18 months in prison by the Warren County Common Pleas Court following his June conviction for having unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, according to a release from the Warren County Prosecutor's Office.

Cuellar was charged with the same crime involving the same girl in January and had been placed on two years of community control, said Warren County Prosecutor Rachel Hutzel.

Cuellar is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, Hutzel said, and one of his defenses was that this type of conduct is legal in his culture. But Hutzel said Ohio has laws to protect against that behavior.

"The affect of this kind of conduct on a girl of this age ... That is much too young to have that kind of physical and emotional impact on a child," Hutzel said. "We need for people like William Cuellar to learn our laws and obey them," she said.

Cuellar worked for the victim's stepfather, Hutzel said, and the girl is currently three months pregnant. Whether Cuellar is deported will be left up to federal authorities, she said, but while he is in the United States, he will be required to register every 90 days as a sexual predator.