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Opening arguments were heard today in the trial of a 49-year-old undocumented immigrant accused of fondling and tickling girls and women while they were sleeping. Roberto Jacobo Reyes allegedly "tickled a 7-year-old, touched a 22-year-old's foot, rubbed a 19-year-old's thighs, stroked the side of a 13-year-old and groped the vagina and breasts of an 11-year-old," explains the OC Weekly.
Reyes was arrested in May 2010 when he was linked by DNA to the assault of a 11-year-old girl that had taken place in February of that year. Reyes allegedly crept into the child's after removing the screen on the window, then fondled her while she slept.
During his interview with authorities "Reyes confessed that he had fondled four or five other girls while they slept," according to the OC Register.
The five incidents for which Reyes is on trial began in early 2009, when he allegedly broke into a home through a rear window and entered the room where a 7-year-old girl was sleeping with siblings. The Orange County District Attorney's office explains: "Reyes is accused of waking the victim by tickling her and tugging on her blanket. [The victim] began to scream and kick the defendant, who is accused of fleeing from the home back through the open window."
The OCDA details the specific charges Reyes, who is in the country illegally, faces:
[Reyes] is charged with one felony count of forcible lewd act on a child under 14, two felony counts of lewd act upon child under 14, and three felony counts of first degree residential burglary with sentencing enhancement allegations for committing lewd acts in the commission of residential burglaries, committing lewd acts on multiple victims, and for having a non-accomplice present during a residential burglary. The defendant also faces an enhancement for a 2003 prior strike for residential burglary.
Reyes re-entered the U.S. illegally after being deported for a molestation conviction in 2003, reports City News Service.
If convicted on all charges, Reyes faces a maximum sentence of 194 years to life in state prison.
