Riverbank man sentenced for sexually abusing two girls

A judge on Friday sentenced a 35-year-old Riverbank man to 38 years to life in prison for sexually abusing two girls.

Javier Augusto Quinteros sat quietly next to his attorney as the victims’ parents spoke in court about the abuse that went on for about seven years.

The girls’father told the judge that Quinteros stole his daughters’ childhood. “He took it away. I can’t ever get that back,” the father said.

He said his daughters appear to be healthy children, but the effects of long-term sexual abuse at such a young age have ruined them emotionally. He said one of his daughters doesn’t want to have kids or even get married, worried she might meet a man who would victimize her or her family again.

“They shouldn’t have gone through this,” the victims’ father said in court. “This guy came in and just destroyed them ... and they didn’t deserve it. They were just little girls.”

A jury in late July convicted Quinteros after a four-week trial. The jurors found him guilty on two counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child, along with sodomy of a child younger than 14 years old and oral copulation with a child younger than 14.

Quinteros was acquitted on a charge of intercourse or sodomy with a child 10 years old or younger and a second count of oral copulation with a child younger than 14.

Frank Carson, Quinteros’ attorney, told the judge it’s unconstitutional that a state law requires consecutive sentences for each charge when there are multiple victims in a sex-abuse case. He said the state law is being challenged in the appellate courts in other cases.

“It punishes my client twice for the same behavior or alleged conduct,” Carson argued.

Deputy District Attorney Annette Rees, who prosecuted the case, argued that the issue over consecutive sentences in these sex-abuse cases already has been settled and the courts have determined the law is constitutional.

The prosecutor told the judge the criminal acts in this case occurred on separate dates, so Quinteros’ sentence was appropriate.

The defense attorney argued that his client had no prior convictions but the court ignored that mitigating factor, which should have reduced his client’s sentence. Carson also argued that one of the girls initiated the sexual conduct by sending explicit photos to his client.

Carson’s argument angered the girls’ mother. “How would he feel if it was his daughters? He wouldn’t be saying these things,” she said in court about the defense attorney.

Stanislaus Superior Court Judge John Freeland said the victims’ statements about what happened to them were truthful, and the girls did not initiate the sexual conduct when the abuse began. “That was clear from the evidence,” the judge said during Friday’s hearing.

Freeland also said he would not consider anything the girls did later on in the abuse. The judge said the victims were vulnerable, and the defendant took advantage of their trust.

The defendant molested the two girls, who were known to him, from 2003 through 2010, according to prosecutors. Quinteros was arrested March8, 2010, and prosecutors filed a criminal complaint against him two days later.

Prosecutors said the younger of the two victims told her mother what Quinteros was doing to her, which led to the defendant’s arrest. They also said testimony in the trial included DNA evidence and medical reports indicating the girls suffered physical scarring from the abuse.

As part of his sentence, the judge ordered Quinteros to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. If he is released from prison, the judge told the defendant he will have to serve 10 years on parole.

Freeland said this conviction will be considered as two strikes under the state’s “three strikes” law. Were Quinteros convicted of another violent felony, he would be eligible for a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

The girls’ mother told the judge that the family worries Quinteros could one day be released from prison. “We will fear him until the day we die,” she said in court. “Javier is a monster, and he always will be.”

This story was originally published October 24, 2014 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Riverbank man sentenced for sexually abusing two girls."