Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that a 43-year-old Shirley man was sentenced to 23 years in prison for Rape, Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child, and other related offenses, which he committed for years against his stepdaughter, who was nine years old when the sexual abuse began.
The District Attorney’s Office is not naming the defendant in order to protect the identity of the child victim.
“Children should feel loved and protected in the company of an adult, and not have their innocence taken advantage of, especially in the way that this defendant took advantage of his own stepdaughter,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Let this lengthy prison sentence serve as a deterrent and warning to anyone who is even thinking of harming children in Suffolk County, that my office will do everything in our power to hold you accountable.”
The evidence at trial established that in July 2016, the defendant married the mother of the victim, who was nine years old at the time. That same month, the defendant brought the victim into his bedroom while her mother was at work and subjected her to sexual abuse. The defendant threatened the victim in order to keep her from telling anyone what he had done.
The sexual abuse continued until May 2017, when the relationship between the defendant and the victim’s mother ended, and the defendant no longer had access to the victim.
In June 2019, the victim disclosed the abuse to her mother, who then immediately brought her to the hospital, and the defendant was arrested.
On November 17, 2023, the defendant was found guilty after a jury trial heard before County Court Judge, the Honorable Karen M. Wilutis, for the charges of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony, Rape in the First Degree, a Class B violent felony, and Sexual Abuse in the First Degree, a Class D violent felony.
On December 19, 2023, Judge Wilutis sentenced the defendant to 23 years in prison followed by 20 years of post-release supervision. He will also be required to register as a sex offender. The defendant was represented by Peter Mayer, Esq.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Dana Castaldo of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Hector Laserna of the Grand Jury Unit, with investigative assistance from retired Detective Jeannette Morales, formerly of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Special Victims Section, and Suffolk County District Attorney Investigator Lorraine Winters.
Criminal complaints and indictments are merely accusatory instruments. Defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. No one is above the law.