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SIERRA VISTA — An illegal entrant who abandoned a 16-month-old girl under a mesquite bush as Border Patrol agents closed in was convicted of child abuse, but a jury rejected a more serious charge that could have led to a 24-year prison sentence.

Juan Cayetano Rosas, 24, faces 2 1/2 years in prison for Friday's conviction on a negligent child abuse charge.

Cayetano, from Huachinango in the Mexican state of Puebla, was among a group who crossed the border on July 5, 2005.

He testified at his trial in Bisbee that he had just squeezed through a fence into the United States when the migrant smuggler leading his group told a woman to hand Cayetano her baby.

When Border Patrol vehicles suddenly appeared, Cayetano said the smuggler told the group to run. He ran with the baby and the mother went the other way.

Cayetano said he lay on the desert floor with the child for about two hours before the girl started crying.

Thinking the cries would attract nearby agents, he ran away.

The woman was caught and told agents about the missing baby, and they caught Caye-tano about an hour later. He eventually led agents to her hiding place.

The child was scratched and covered with ants, but otherwise unharmed.

The Cochise County attorney charged Cayetano with aggravated abuse of a child under 15, which carries the 24-year prison term.

Several law enforcement agents testified that there were dangers such as scorpions and snakes in the area where the child was abandoned.

But jurors decided the child was at some risk, but that it was not as serious as prosecutors alleged.

The mother identified herself to police as Mar'a Luisa Escutia Luna, 35, and the girl as her daughter, Sandra Escutia Luna, 16 months old, although officials never confirmed her name.

She said they were from the Mexican state of Michoacan and were on their way to Chicago.

Both were returned to Mexico last year.

Cayetano is set for sentencing on Sept. 29.