By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

COLUMBIANA – A 32-year-old Alabaster man will spend the next two decades in prison after he pleaded guilty in late October to raping an underage victim in 2015.

Ramon Rosas Morales, who lists an address on Kent Dairy Road in Alabaster, pleaded guilty to one felony count of first-degree rape during an Oct. 30 hearing in front of Shelby County Circuit Court Judge William Bostick.

After accepting Morales’ guilty plea, Bostick sentenced him to 20 years in prison without the possibility of early parole, which was enhanced because of the victim’s age, according to court documents. He received 730 days of credit for time already served in the Shelby County Jail.

Through a plea agreement with prosecutors, a felony sexual abuse of a child charge was dropped against Morales. After he is released from prison, he must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

Because he is not a U.S. citizen, Morales also faces possible “deportation, exclusion from re-entry into the United States and exclusion from amnesty,” read his sentencing document.

A Shelby County grand jury during its August 2017 session returned a two-count indictment against Morales upholding the felony charges against him.

According to the indictments, Morales allegedly did “engage in sexual intercourse” and did “subject to sexual contact” a female who was younger than 12 from May 2015 to June 2015.

Shelby County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Morales on Oct. 31, 2015, and charged him with felony counts of first-degree rape and sexual abuse of a child younger than 12.