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Adan Martinez, a Mexican national, will also likely be deported once his sentence for raping the then-14-year-old is over, Superior Court Judge James J. Guida said yesterday.
Martinez, 46, could have faced up to 20 years if convicted at a trial. But a plea bargain was struck that Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Dion Findley said spares the emotionally fragile victim the ordeal of testifying.
She’s now “scarred for life,” the teen’s mother said yesterday.
“I hope while he’s in jail he thinks about everything he has done,” the woman said. “Six years is nothing to what this man has caused my family and daughter.”
Defense attorney S. Emile Lisboa asked for five years.
Guida refused, saying that Martinez’s acts “had devastating effects on the child…. She needs medication to sleep, and, according to her mother’s statement, has never been the same since the incident.”
The 5-foot-7-inch Martinez stood with his head down throughout the proceedings. He admitted sexually assaulting the girl through a Spanish interpreter but said nothing else.
Originally charged with first-degree rape and debauching or impairing the morals of a minor, Martinez was able to plead guilty to a single, second-degree charge as part of his deal.
Although a conviction by a jury could have put him behind bars more three times longer, Findley, the prosecutor, said the outcome was best under the circumstances.
“You weigh the prison time against the psychological trauma of putting the victim through a trial,” he told CLIFFVIEW PILOT. “Given that, the family was satisfied with the outcome.”
STORY / PHOTOS: Mary K. Miraglia, CLIFFVIEW PILOT Courthouse Reporter
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