Press Release
SEXUAL PREDATOR SENTENCED FOR RAPING CHILD RELATIVE
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Julio Fernando Pina-Illescas was sentenced to 17.5 years to life in prison for sexually assaulting a child relative over the course of 10 years, beginning when the girl was 4 years old. In a separate case, Pina-Illescas has been charged with abusing two other pre-teen girls.
District Attorney Katz said: “This defendant, now a convicted sexual predator, used his access and authority to prey on an innocent child. While we cannot take away the trauma caused by his acts, I hope the prison sentence provides a measure of closure to the young victim, who bravely stepped forward to tell us about the horrors she was forced to endure. My office will pursue full accountability in the separate indictment against the defendant.”
Pina-Illescas, 39, of Corona, was convicted last month by a jury on charges of predatory sexual assault of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, leading Supreme Court Justice David J. Kirschner to sentence him to 17.5 years to life in prison, to be followed by five years post-release supervision. Pina-Illescas will also be required to register as a sex offender.
According to the charges and trial testimony:
- Between approximately August 2009 and October 2019, beginning when the victim was 4, Pina-Illescas sexually molested and raped the victim on numerous occasions.
- The abuse occurred inside Pina-Illescas’ two places of residence in Corona
In a separate case, Pina-Illescas was indicted in 2020 on two counts of sexual abuse in the first degree and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child for abusing another child relative and other young girl. The case is pending.
Assistant District Attorney Lauren Parson of the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Eric C. Rosenbaum, Bureau Chief, Debra Lynn Pomodore and Brian Hughes, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Special Prosecutions Division Joyce A. Smith.