Font Resize
LAS CRUCES - A man who raped a 9-year-old boy inside a clubhouse has been sentenced to 20 years in prison and at least five years parole.
Steven Zertuche Pe a, 36, has been in jail since his arrest Oct. 5, 2009, and will not be eligible to be released on supervised probation until 2029, according to a judgment entered Wednesday in court.
Third Judicial District Court Judge Stephen Bridgforth suspended 11 years of what was a total 31-year sentence for Pe a, a resident of the 1000 block of California Avenue in Las Cruces.
After the boy told his mother what Pe a had done, the man gave the boy's mother a written description of his crimes and agreed to pay her $100 a month not to call the police, according documents filed in court by a Las Cruces Police Department detective. A letter recovered from the boy's mother's house, signed and dated Sept. 12, 2009, said that Pe a had raped the boy "and didn't mean too [sic]. It was something very stupid and why [I] did it I don't know."
It was the boy's father who ultimately called police, according to court documents.
Pe a did not talk to police about what he described in court documents as "the incident" because, he told them, he wasn't proud of what he had done.
Pe a's mother asserted her son's innocence after he entered a plea of no-contest to charges of criminal sexual penetration of a child, criminal sexual contact of a child and contributing to the delinquency of a minor - not admitting guilt, but rather acknowledging
"This is not going to heal anything," said Delfina Zertuche, who alleged her son wasn't capable of doing what he was charged with and that he had been framed.
Delfina Zertuche called the allegations "a bunch of crap."
"This is not right for my son to do prison," she said.
Ashley Meeks can be reached at ameeks@lcsun-news.com; (575) 541-5462
