Burning Atlanta

Bayron Orlando Euceda, an illegal immigrant from Honduras, did not serve a day in prison for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old Houston girl.

Instead, a Harris County judge sentenced the 21-year-old to eight years deferred adjudication, a form of probation. A sticky note on his plea agreement reads, "Best interest of victim."

"That's incredible," said Andy Kahan, director of the Houston Mayor's Crime Victims Office and a former probation officer, after thumbing through Euceda's court paperwork. ''The best interest of the victim would have been to have that guy locked up."

A Houston Chronicle investigation found 330 cases involving defendants sentenced to some form of probation in Harris County — despite admitting to the jailer upon their arrest that they were in the country illegally.At least 44 of those cases involved defendants who later had their probation revoked and were sent to prison or who now have outstanding arrest warrants, the investigation found.

Slightly more than half of the 330 cases involved felony charges. In a handful of cases, illegal immigrants under the county's supervision later were accused of committing serious crimes, including aggravated assault and sexual abuse of a child.