WINNEMUCCA - Ponciano Flores-Vidriales, a 75-year-old man charged with attempted lewdness with a child under the age of 14, was sentenced Monday to prison for 24 to 60 months with credit for 466 days served.
Vidriales was charged with lewdness with a child under the age of 14, a category A felony, in July 2011, but after negotiations with the district attorney's office the charge was dropped to a category B felony.
At Vidriales' original arraignment on Nov. 14, 2011, Public Defender Matthew Stermitz asked for, and was granted, a continuance. Stermitz was concerned that Vidriales may not have completely understood the charges filed against him and the meaning of his plea.
At the arraignment on Nov. 14, he was found competent to stand trial following evaluations from Lake's Crossing.
Vidriales pleaded guilty to the amended charge of attempted lewdness with a child under 14 years of age on Nov. 21, 2011.
Stermitz argued during sentencing Monday that Vidriales was determined to be a low risk to reoffend in evaluations and therefore should not be sentenced to prison time. Stermitz asked the court to grant the defendant a suspended sentence and put him on structured probation with mandatory registration.
"This is a sad situation that necessitates prison unless he is found to not be a high risk to reoffend," Stermitz said, and quoted, from evaluations, that Vidriales was found to have a 1.6 percent chance to reoffend.
Deputy District Attorney Roger Whomes argued that Vidriales should be sentenced to prison time, and then possibly face deportation upon release, assuming a hold would be placed on him by ICE upon conviction. He said that just because Vidriales was determined to be a low risk to reoffend doesn't mean it can be overlooked that he offended in the first place.
"This is a situation where someone did something frightening in the extreme," he said.
Whomes said that the court cannot forget what started the case to begin with: an 8-year-old girl was inappropriately touched by Vidriales.
"We can't let that happen to anyone else," he said. "We have to take steps to let the community know this will not be tolerated."
Vidriales was given the opportunity to speak to the court before sentencing was imposed and asked for probation.
"I've been in jail a long time and suffered a lot; I think that should be enough," he said. "I ask for forgiveness from my children and the officials as well."
As part of Vidriales' sentence, he will be under lifetime supervision.
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