A Norcross man was sentenced Friday to six back-to-back life sentences plus 211 years for his role in "one of the most brutal and heinous crime sprees" ever to occur in Gwinnett County, prosecutors said.

Gustavo Cisneros, 22, was one of nine men indicted for a series of nine home invasion robberies in Gwinnett in the spring of 2004.

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Gustavo Cisnero was convicted for robberies that included torture and assault of the victims.

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The masked, armed bandits battered, shot and tortured male victims, sexually assaulted some female victims and pistol-whipped a child. They stole money, jewelry and vehicles, authorities said.

Cisneros was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Debra Turner on Friday. He had been convicted by a jury on July 12 following a trial that spanned nearly two weeks, said Assistant District Attorney Lisa Jones, who prosecuted the case along with Assistant District Attorney Stephen Fern.

Two of Cisneros' former conspirators, Gonzalo Ortega and Jose Martinez, testified against him during the trial, Jones said. Both men had already pleaded guilty earlier this year.

Martinez was sentenced to 17 years in prison followed by 23 years on probation. Ortega was sentenced to 22 years in prison followed by 18 years on probation.

The three men were part of an organized crew that stormed into nine houses in Gwinnett and one in neighboring Barrow County between Feb. 25 and April 30, 2004. The crimes set area residents on edge because of their randomness.

The group's last robbery ended with the suspects shooting a 40-year-old man four times at a Duluth home. The man was hospitalized with serious injuries.

In another of the home invasions, on April 18, 2004, the suspects tied up a man at a house on Shadowood Road in Lawrenceville, then burned and cut his back with a heated knife.

"They were threatening to cut his sons' fingers off if they didn't tell him where there their money was," Jones said.

Three women in Gwinnett and one in Barrow were sexually assaulted in separate incidents, Jones said.

The home invasion crew was eventually captured when their alleged getaway driver, Jaime Carrera Carmago, was arrested for driving a suspicious vehicle one street over from where a home invasion would later occur on Davenport Park Lane near Duluth.

Police began to suspect that he dropped off three men who had committed the robbery.

In subsequent interviews with detectives, Carmago provided information that led police to arrest the remaining suspects on April 30.

One alleged member of the home invasion crew, Hugo Hernandez Delfino, was mistakenly released from the Regional Youth Detention Center in Lawrenceville a few days after the arrests. Police have since been unable to find him, Jones said.

The five remaining suspects are still awaiting trial.