Man who sexually abused girl sentenced to 25 years in prison | Guam News

A man found guilty of multiple counts of first- and second-degree sexual abuse has been sentenced to 25 years in prison.

On Wednesday morning, Daniel “Danny” Vincent Rodriguez appeared in the Superior Court of Guam to be sentenced on three counts of first-degree sexual abuse and eight counts of second-degree sexual abuse, charges he was found guilty of during his trial in March.

While the Attorney General’s Office demanded the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for Rodriguez, Rodriguez’s lawyer Curtis Van de Veld said a life sentence would be an “extreme punishment” given the charges.

According to court documents, Rodriguez was first charged in November 2020 after an 8-year-old girl accused Rodriguez of sexually assaulting her while he was massaging her back.

In January 2021, Rodriguez was then charged with additional sex offenses after a 12-year-old girl accused Rodriguez of sexually abusing her since she was six years old.

Given that Rodriguez had never been convicted of a crime before this case, Van de Veld added that it was “unfair” that Rodriguez received the maximum sentence.

“That doesn’t make sense,” said Van de Veld.

“Mr Rodriguez asks the court to impose the shortest prison sentence possible,” Van de Veld added.

Continued refusal

Although Rodriguez was found guilty at trial, he continues to maintain his innocence and made statements to that effect during sentencing before Judge John Terlaje.

“I did not do any of the things I was accused of,” Rodriguez said.

“It is impossible that I did these things. … This does not make sense. … I am being accused of something I did not even do. … I will continue to fight for my innocence,” Rodriguez said as he delivered his speech to the court, which lasted about 10 minutes.

However, Rodriguez was interrupted by Assistant Attorney General Christine Tenorio, who objected to other statements made by Rodriguez regarding the character of the victims’ families. Tenorio argued that Terlaje should not consider those particular statements and only what came out at trial should be considered.

After Rodriguez finished, Tenorio presented arguments supporting the motion to sentence Rodriguez to life in prison.

“Even though this is a first conviction, I support the life sentence because … the record shows that he did this to one child continuously for six years and then moved on to the next child,” Tenorio said.

“A suspended sentence or a lesser sentence would cause significant injustice to the defendant, and the mandatory minimum sentence does not necessarily serve to protect the public,” Tenorio added.

Sentence

Following the closing arguments, Terlaje stated that the most difficult task for a judge was to pronounce a verdict and that he had given the verdict a lot of thought.

Terlaje then announced that he would not sentence Rodriguez to life in prison, but would sentence him to 25 years for the three counts of first-degree sexual abuse and 15 years for the eight counts of second-degree sexual abuse, all to run concurrently. This means Rodriguez will serve a 25-year sentence.

Rodriguez has stated that he intends to appeal his conviction to the Supreme Court of Guam. Rodriguez has two weeks to formally file an appeal. If the appeal is filed, Rodriguez will remain free on conditions, according to Terlaje.