Man faces deportation after 10-year sentence
BY KEYONNA SUMMERS • FLORIDA TODAY • July 2, 2008


A 20-year-old man from Trinidad convicted of breaking into a home and sexually assaulting a 20-year-old in her bedroom in August could be deported after he finishes serving 10 years in state prison.


Judge Meryl Allawas this week also sentenced Dwayne Modeste to 20 years probation. The sentences were part of a plea agreement with prosecutors on one count each of burglary of a dwelling with assault or battery, sexual battery and robbery, prosecutor Julia Lynch said.

If Modeste had been convicted at trial, he could have been sentenced to life in prison.

Court records show Modeste pleaded guilty in April to charges that he broke into the victim's Palm Bay home and touched her while she was sleeping, then grabbed a machete from the kitchen to fight off the woman's awakened relatives and fled with one of their cell phones.

According to police, Modeste admitted that he was walking past the home when he spotted the woman through a bedroom window. He said he slipped in through a rear sliding glass door and went to her bedroom, where he initially intended to masturbate while watching her.

Instead, police said, she awoke and Modeste ended up choking and punching the woman while attempting to pull her underwear off.

A female relative who heard the scuffle attacked Modeste with a mop or broom handle as he entered the living room. Modeste grabbed the machete from the kitchen and threw it at the relative and her husband before exiting the home, authorities said.

He was caught a week later after police traced calls made on the phone to Modeste's ex-girlfriend in New York.

Authorities said Modeste, who was living in the country legally at the time of the attack, had moved to the Palm Bay area, possibly to attend college.

"If the immigration officials place a detainer on him upon his release, we would have to turn him over to those authorities. But they would make that determination," said Jo Ellyn Rackleff, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Corrections.

Contact Summers at 242-3642 or ksummers@floridatoday.com.


Why are these kind of people even considered being allowed to remain here ?

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