Santa Rosa man sentenced to 35 years to life for ongoing child sex abuse
A Santa Rosa man convicted of ongoing rape and sexual abuse of a child was sentenced Monday to 35 years to life in prison, prosecutors said.
Last month, 35-year-old Javier Cruz Navarro pleaded no contest to the sexual abuse charges, two years after a 12-year-old child reported the abuse which began when the victim was 10 years old.
Navarro had regular and recurring access to the victim and would find ways to isolate and abuse the child, threatening to hurt or kill the victim's mother if the child reported the abuse, according to a press statement from the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office.
"The young victim had the courage to come forward and disclose Mr. Navarro's horrific sexual abuse despite his threats and psychological abuse," said District Attorney Carla Rodriguez in a prepared statement. "The 35 years-to-life indeterminate sentence is entirely appropriate and will guarantee that Mr. Navarro will be in prison for at least 20 years."
Navarro was arrested in April 2022 and originally charged with 19 felony sex offenses. Following his plea, he was convicted of four offenses; engaging in sexual intercourse or sodomy with a child younger than 11 years of age, aggravated sexual assault of a child, committing a forcible lewd act upon a child, and oral copulation or sexual penetration of a child younger than 11.
Navarro will be eligible for "elder parole" after California recently enacted a law allowing elderly prison inmates to be considered for parole after serving only 20 years of their sentence, the DA's office said. The law was amended in 2020 to allow inmates who have reached the age of 50 and served only 20 years of their sentence to be considered for parole.
Navarro will also be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison.