1 Charge Reduced, but Ex-pastor's Prison Term Is Unlikely to Change

By Chad Nation
The World-herald
October 4, 2012

http://www.omaha.com/article/20121004/NEWS/710049911/1707

Efrain Umana

The Iowa Court of Appeals has reduced one of the three charges a former pastor at a Council Bluffs church was convicted of in 2011.

Although Efrain Umana had the charge of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse reduced to assault, he will still likely spend the same amount of time in prison.

Umana, 57, was found guilty of second-degree sexual abuse, third-degree sexual abuse and assault with intent to commit sexual abuse in January 2011 after members of his congregation came forth with several allegations of abuse.

The victim in the second-degree sexual abuse conviction was 11 when Umana took her to his Council Bluffs church, Templo Monte Horeb, where she said he forced her to have sex with him.

Umana was also convicted of forcing intercourse with a woman who was a member of Templo Monte Horeb, as well as making unwanted sexual advances toward another parishioner.

The Appeals Court found the last incident of unwanted sexual advances did not rise to the level of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse.

The court found the state did not present enough evidence of specific intent to commit sexual abuse and sent the conviction and sentence back to district court, where Umana will be sentenced on the assault charge.

Second-degree sexual abuse carries a mandatory sentence of 25 years in prison. Umana will serve 70 percent of the sentence, or 17? years, before being eligible for parole.

He was ordered to serve a 10-year sentence for third-degree sexual assault after the first sentence, with the sentence for the third charge running at the same time.

There is no mandatory minimum prison time attached to third-degree sexual abuse and assault convictions.

Umana also argued that the trial court abused its discretion in denying his motion to sever the charges and that the trial information and jury instructions on the second-degree sexual abuse charge were fatally defective.

He also alleged that evidence was insufficient to support guilty verdicts on the second-degree sexual abuse charge.

The court overruled those arguments.