Published Thursday, May 07, 2009 6:05 AM
Jury: Man guilty in child sex case
By MATTHEW WATKINS
matthew.watkins@theeagle.com
Mexican immigrant Rutilio Trinidad-Hernandez was 21 when he impregnated a 12-year-old girl.
He agreed to help take care of the baby and moved in with the girl's family before the child was born. The girl's parents threw him a party on his birthday and placed a picture of him above their television.
Then, on the day the baby was born, hospital workers called police to notify them that a 13-year-old had given birth. Trinidad-Hernandez was arrested hours later and charged with aggravated sexual assault of a child.
A Brazos County jury found him guilty of the crime Tuesday but spent more than five hours deliberating his punishment Wednesday without reaching a verdict. District Judge J.D. Langley sent jurors home just before 6 p.m., to reconvene in the morning.
Prosecutors had asked the jury of nine women and three men to sentence Trinidad-Hernandez to seven to 15 years in prison, saying he was a predator who took advantage of an impressionable young girl.
"When Rutilio was the age that [the girl] was when they had sex, [the girl] was 3," said Assistant District Attorney Brian Baker during his closing argument. "This was a grown man having sex with a child."
Stephen Gustitis, Trinidad-Hernandez's lawyer, asked the jury to sentence him to probation. His client came to the United States from rural Mexico and hasn't assimilated into the local culture, Gustitis said.
He called an expert on rural Mexican culture, who testified that it wasn't unusual for Mexican men to have relationships with younger women. The expert testified that a relationship between a 21-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl was a little more rare, but Gustitis argued that the girl looked older than her age and that Trinidad-Hernandez initially believed she was 13 or 14.
"They start becoming emotionally attached to each other," Gustitis said about the pair, adding that prosecutors were hoping the jurors ignored emotion. "We are moved by emotion. We are moved by the way we feel."
Baker dismissed the defense's argument about emotional attachment. The girl was vulnerable at the age of 12 to a grown man's advances, he said.
The prosecutor also questioned the idea of different cultural norms as a defense. People in the United States must follow the country's laws, he said.
"There's horrible things that are allowed in other countries," he said, noting that people from Amsterdam aren't immune to U.S. drug laws and that female genital mutilation is still banned in the U.S. for people from countries that allow it. "We have to abide by and uphold the law and our standards in our country."
Trinidad-Hernandez, who is an illegal immigrant and will be deported eventually no matter what the jury decides, sat calmly, listening through an interpreter during the closing arguments of the trial. The victim, who is now 16, sat directly behind him. The pair sat together in the courtroom while awaiting the jury's verdict.
Comments
[comment]
23 comment(s) found!
Posted by:
On:
Friday, May 08, 2009 1:43 PM
Comment Title: not right
I am 1st generation US citizen so I still have some family in Old Mexico and have never heared of child molestation being ok in any form.. The girl was way to youg he needs to pay. Now the question do we remember Jery Lee Lewis marrying his 13 yr old cousin.
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Posted by:
R.Perry On:
Friday, May 08, 2009 11:36 AM
Comment Title: What is acceptable?
Okay, in some "Rural Mexican Cultures" they scrafices to the Black Virgin Mary, kill animals and the like in the practice of Santaria (sp). So, do we just accept anything to go on in our country because it is what they have done in theirs?! @#$%$&$%* Breading factory Mexicana!!!!
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Posted by:
P.Romei On:
Friday, May 08, 2009 11:31 AM
Comment Title: #%&*#@$% Mexicans!!!
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Posted by:
TIO PEPE-Hecho A Mano Bryan Tejas On:
Friday, May 08, 2009 9:13 AM
Comment Title:
Will have Texas back soon. at this rate Bryan in a year.
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Posted by:
Napoleon On:
Friday, May 08, 2009 5:15 AM
Comment Title: Where???
Where the heck is Bonneville? My daddy once drove a sweet 66 Pontiac Bonneville station wagon. When I got my DL me and Uncle Rico used to go trolling for babes in it.
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Posted by:
no need for that I have family in Bryan before it was called Bryan.{Bonneville} On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 8:25 PM
Comment Title:
Bryan was never named Booneville. You are referring to Boonville; and the former townsite of Boonville is now within Bryan City Limits. Boonville was the first county seat and was replaced by Bryan in 1866.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 8:00 PM
Comment Title:
One in about 483 Bryan residents is registered as a sex offender. One in about ever 1800 CS residents is reg. One of the lowest rates not just in Texas but the USA. Per CITY-DATA.COM
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 7:49 PM
Comment Title:
"you need to do a little more searching of your facts before popping" no need for that I have family in Bryan before it was called Bryan.{Bonneville} Some of these streets in Bryan have been named after my family. I even thought about seeing if the city would remove the name since the area is a Gangbanger area. I still know a slum area of vice if I see it. You must be from a family of drug users and thugs in Bryan we had some I am told even in the 20's.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 7:42 PM
Comment Title: Where is CPS in all of this?
I'd say that CPS is definitely NOT doing their job! Also, abuelo y abuela should be in jail for child endangerment.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 3:26 PM
Comment Title: hey John Bobbitt
well i see your last name is Bobbitt are you kin to the Bobbitt that the wife cut off his $$$$ here oh about 20 years or so...lol...just wondering ...any way your comment seems a little shy of what happens in college station...they are just as much sex crimes in college station. as they are in bryan you may not hear about it all the time ...but you need to do a little more searching your facts before popping off what you really don't know for your ...oh by the be sure you never mess around on your wife she might do the same the other Bobbitt got ..lol..cya ..i think they need to send the mexican to prison first do his 15 years then send him to mexico ...but thats my opinion...
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Posted by:
This is totally acceptable behavior for most Bryan residents. On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 2:32 PM
Comment Title:
It may be totally acceptable to you, but as you can see it IS NOT acceptable in Bryan.
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Posted by:
Bryan is a poverty stricken as others have mentioned. On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 2:30 PM
Comment Title:
Got any support for that statement. You visit city-data.com so: which city has the higher unemployment rate, Bryan or College Station; which city has more folks living under the poverty line, Bryan or College Station?
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 2:15 PM
Comment Title: ROSA
I FEEL THE PARENTS ARE TO BLAME FOR NOT ADVICING THEIR DAUGHTER OF THE CONSEQUENCES THIS MAN WAS FACING. JUST BY BEING ILLEGAL, AND FROM MEXICO WOULD MAKE IT EASY FOR ANYONE TO MIS JUDGE HIM. I DO AGREE OF THE LAW WE HAVE HERE IN THE UNITED STATES. BUT, I ALSO FEEL HE SHOULD JUST GET DEPORTED, AND NOT JAIL TIME. HE DID NOT RAPE OR FORCED THIS YOUNG LADY. THERE ARE SO MANY MEN THAT GET AWAY WITH THE CRIME, AND ARE AWARE OF THE LAW. PLEASE PARDON HIM, AND SEND HIM HOME. I AM A MOTHER, AND WOULD PREFER THAT MY SON JUST GET SEND BACK HOME. IF THE GIRL REALLY LOVES HIM, SHE CAN GO TO MEXICO HERSELF TO BE WITH HIM/THEIR CHILD,/ AN HIS LAWS.
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Posted by:
John Bobbitt On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 1:59 PM
Comment Title:
Bryan is a poverty stricken as others have mentioned. This is totally acceptable behavior for most Bryan residents. However if this happened to my daughter it would not be him you were reading about it would be me. This is why my family is forbidden to step into Bryan. Their child registered sex offender list is staggering. I reviewed the city data website quoted so often in the eagle and numbers are outrageous. I could not find per capita any city over 6,000 residents with a higher. When are you people going to wake up and live like respectable civilized people? This is NOT normal in any non savage society.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 12:52 PM
Comment Title: Sentencing
I hope they sentence him to some time. I realize the girl's family accepts him; however, if we don't send out a message that this kind of activity will be punished, then other "immigrants" will think it's okay to follow suit. We can't turn a blind eye to this.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 12:41 PM
Comment Title:
They have the conviction now ship him back to Mexico and maybe his child and bride will follow him. He can never come back legally if we ever decide to enforce the laws to keep them out.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 11:25 AM
Comment Title:
John CSTX - If it gets to be too burdensome for you, relocate. I'm doubt you have any special skills that force you to remain in College Station.
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Posted by:
John-CSTX On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:39 AM
Comment Title:
I work so i have to pay for this in Bryan.>>>>>>>>>FED UP WITH BRYAN<<<<<<<<<<<<<
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Posted by:
Poverty breeds Poverty Bryan Texas. On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:34 AM
Comment Title:
Rural Mexican culture in Bryan. This takes the cake.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:31 AM
Comment Title:
This Bryan man needs a map of the USA. Bryan is full of this type.
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Posted by:
NBA-Normal Bryan Activity. On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 10:29 AM
Comment Title:
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Posted by:
PHARAOH On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 8:10 AM
Comment Title: Who's your daddy?
At least there's not question as to who the daddy is.
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Posted by:
On:
Thursday, May 07, 2009 7:38 AM
Comment Title: Cannibalism
Cannibalism might be culturally acceptable in some locations on this planet, but not in Brazos County. So long fellow.
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