Nineteen months after his indictment, Cesar Toribio Garcia was convicted last week on first degree rape and sexual assault charges related to the abuse of his young daughter.
“I need to start by saying in 20 years of prosecuting these types of cases, that this is the worst case I’ve ever had,” said Deputy District Attorney Carrie Rasmussen, who prosecuted the case on behalf of the state, at Toribio Garcia’s sentencing hearing on March 19.
After a week-long trial, a jury convicted Toribio Garcia on 14 felonies — two charges of Rape in the First Degree and 12 charges of Sexual Abuse in the First Degree — which together carry a maximum sentence of 125 years.
He was only sentenced on the two charges listed under Jessica’s Law, a 2006 law that requires a mandatory 25-year minimum sentence for adults convicted of raping, sodomizing or sexually penetrating a child under 12-years-old. “I think it fairly represents the conduct that he spent over 15 percent of his life, but essentially tortured a girl for half of her lifetime,” Rasmussen said.
Toribio Garcia, 36, received a two 25-year sentences in a corrections facility to be served consecutively (for a total of 50 years), a $10,400 fine, court-mandated disease testing, lifetime supervision and the requirement to register as a sex offender after his release — Rasmussen’s full request.
“This is the worst (case) I have heard as well,” said Judge Karen Ostrye, who delivered Toribio Garcia’s sentence, “and I don’t think the request is beyond what’s appropriate.”
When considering her request, Rasmussen said, she looked at the only other Jessica’s Law case that she has prosecuted in this district — that of Darnell Gibson, a Cascade Locks man who received a 25 year sentence in 2011 for sexual assault of his 6-year-old niece.
In comparing the two cases, Rasmussen said that the abuse in the Gibson case lasted for an hour of the victim’s life, while in this case, the abuse was “ongoing and relentless for half of (the victim’s) life … That represents, your honor, one half of this child’s lifetime to damage that the court knows will last a lifetime, both physically and mentally,” Rasmussen said.
She also took into account “the aggravating factor of the relationship … the betrayal of trust, the betrayal of access he had uniquely to the child, the victimization of the entire family … (and) the isolation of this mother and daughter for his own venal needs,” she said.
The abuse began when the victim was 5-years-old and continued until the age of 10, when she came forward, according to the victim’s testimony. She was 11-years-old at the time of the sentencing.
“The evidence in this case was overwhelming, the medical evidence was rare,” Rasmussen said. “I can’t say enough about this brave little girl. She really advocated for herself when she was 5-years-old.”
She credited the victim’s aunt for coming forward at “a critical time,” and to the family as a whole for pulling together to “protect this little girl … this family has grown closer over the last year and a half,” she said.
“This case should never have gone to trial,” she added, but it did because Toribio Garcia did not believe the family could get together and take the case to court. The court-appointed defense attorney, Bernice Melamund, objected to this statement, but the objection was dismissed.
One of the victim’s family members later came forward to address the court. “This man (Toribio Garcia) would have never thought that this family would have come together,” she said. “This family is stronger …whatever he tried to do to keep us apart, it will not work.”
Melamund started her argument by responding to Rasmussen’s claim that the case shouldn’t have gone to trial, asserting that Toribio Garcia has the constitutional right to a trial. She argued for the minimum 25-year jail sentence required under Jessica’s Law. “I would submit to the court that 25 years is a long and punitive sentence and certainly accounts for the crimes he has committed,” she said.
“I do understand that the victim and the family has suffered, and I don’t want to diminish that,” she said before going into Toribio Garcia’s background, saying that he grew up in Mexico “in very dire conditions himself” and started hard labor at 9-years-old, lived on his own starting at age 13 and immediately started working when he moved to the U.S.
“Everyone I’ve spoken to has said that he was an extraordinarily hard worker,” Melamund said, adding that he sends money back to his family in Mexico, and that Toribo Garcia would almost certainly be deported back to Mexico with no option for reentry following his release.
Before delivering her sentence, Ostrye took a moment to address the victim, seated with her family in the front row.
“This is not your fault … and you tried your best to stop what was happening to you, and you did not deserve to be treated the way you were treated,” she said. “You are strong … you must have felt out of control when these things were happening to you, but you are in control now.” To the victim’s mother, she said, “It is possible to heal … and it will take time.”
Ostrye then turned to Toribio Garcia and said, “This was more than two felonies … this was systemized abuse. This was the breaking apart of an entire family that you had no right to do.”
After delivering her sentence, she added that, due to Toribio Garcia’s immigration status, he will most likely be deported and prohibited from reentry immediately following his release.
He has 30 days from the sentencing date to file an appeal. He is currently being lodged at NORCOR.
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