FARMINGTON – A Rhode Island man will spend the next five years in prison following a guilty plea to a felony sex crime today in Franklin County Superior Court, as part of a larger, partially-suspended sentence.
Wilson Ferreira Alves, 31 of Pawtucket, R.I., pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact, a Class B felony, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with all but five years suspended. Another charge, gross sexual assault, was dismissed as part of the arranged plea and sentence.
The conviction relates to an incident which occurred in May 2013 when the victim was staying with a family member in Jay. Alves was renting space within that home, according to evidence the state indicated it would have presented had the case gone to trial, and had never met the victim until the evening of May 14, 2013.
The victim fell asleep on the couch and awoke to find Alves holding her down. She struggled but was unable to dislodge Alves, who then groped and penetrated her.
The next day, she contacted a friend and went Franklin Memorial Hospital where a rape kit exam was conducted. The police were contacted and investigated, with the state crime lab eventually determining that vaginal swabs collected during the rape kit exam matched a DNA sample belonging to Alves.
A warrant was issued for Alves’ arrest in December. He was arrested on that warrant by Rhode Island law enforcement on Feb. 6, 2014 and transported back to Maine.
Alves was sentenced to 10 years in prison, with all but five years of that sentence suspended. Upon his release, he will face four years of probation, with conditions to include no contact with the victim, sex offender counseling and compliance with Maine’s Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
The victim, who did not oppose Alves’ plea and sentence arrangement, wrote a statement that was read by a Sexual Assault Prevention & Response Services’ representative in open court. In it, she said that Alves’ name didn’t matter to her, because: “All I saw that that night was evil.”
She went on to say that the sexual assault had been traumatic to the point of causing her to develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and that she no longer felt safe.
“Please,” she wrote, “I beg you to see all the evil cause by this man.”
DISGUSTNG…..THAT’S ALL HE GOT FOR PUNISHMENT? OUR JUSTICE SYSTEM DEFINITELY NEEDS AN OVERHAUL!