Man gets five years for touching 6-year-olds
Illegal immigrant had pleaded guilty

By Charles Webster IV • STAFF WRITER • January 19, 2008



FREEHOLD — An illegal immigrant from Mexico was sentenced Friday to five years in prison after pleading guilty to inappropriately touching the 6-year-old daughters of his former girlfriend.

Milton Estrada, 30, who was living in Long Branch at the time of the incident, was sentenced to a five-year prison term, fines and supervised parole for life after state Superior Court Judge Anthony J. Mellaci Jr. rejected a plea for leniency from his attorney.

"I've known this man for over 600 days," defense attorney John M. Peduto told the judge in arguing for a lesser sentence. "I'd trust this man with my own daughters."

"That's all well and good, Mr. Peduto. Maybe you'd leave your daughter with him, but I wouldn't leave my daughters within 200 yards of this man," Mellaci replied.

Mellaci pointed out that Estrada admitted inappropriately touching the two young girls, when he pleaded guilty in September to two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. But the judge added that the admittance in court was counter to what Estrada told evaluators at the state's adult diagnostic treatment center in Avenel.

In his own statement to the court, Estrada said through an interpreter that he had a son in Mexico. Mellaci told him, "You probably should have stayed in Mexico with your son."

Estrada was credited with serving 546 days of his five-year sentence, fined $4,080, ordered to have no contact with the victims and will be subjected to supervised parole for life and will have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 15-years-old.

"In my mind, he is a real danger," Mellaci said from the bench.

Estrada is an illegal immigrant with a detainer from federal authorities, who will deport him after his release from prison.


In your voice
Read reactions to this story


jerseygirl34 wrote:

Estrada is an illegal immigrant with a detainer from federal authorities, who will deport him after his release from prison. Why wait... Save us all years of taxpayers $ and let him do his time in some mexican prison. Why should we foot the bill to support him? Let his country pay for their own sickos.





http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/articl ... 8801190347