Illegal immigrant to get trial after withdrawing plea
June 10, 2009

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A 19-year-old illegal immigrant sentenced to an eight-year prison term last year has withdrawn his plea, negating the sentence and forcing prosecutors to prove his guilt at trial, court records show.


Martin L. Gamez, a Mexican citizen who had been living at 1212 Erie Ave., pleaded no contest in March 2008 to first-degree sexual assault in a case alleging he masturbated behind a partially disrobed 8-year-old girl in August 2007.

But Gamez filed a motion to withdraw his plea in January on the grounds that his attorney listed the wrong charge in the plea agreement and the judge did not inform him of the possibility of deportation, District Attorney Joe DeCecco said Tuesday. Judge Timothy Van Akkeren granted the motion May 14.

The trial, scheduled for July 22 and 23, was set Tuesday in a hearing before Van Akkeren.

Gamez is still serving a two-year prison sentence for forcing a 15-year-old girl to perform a sex act on him in November 2006. He was initially given a deferred conviction agreement for that offense — which would dismiss the charge if he committed no further crimes for three years — but that was revoked and the prison sentence handed down in June 2008 after the second sexual assault charge was filed.

George Limbeck, the attorney who represented Gamez in the case, said at the time Gamez was drunk and high and does not remember sexually assaulting the 8-year-old, though he does not deny it. Van Akkeren, at Gamez’s now-irrelevant sentencing, had said that Gamez was out of chances.

“We need to protect the public because you’ve shown from your past behavior that you can’t control your actions,â€