Life sentence for Florida probationer who wore GPS ankle monitor while raping 69-year-old West Boca woman
By Marc Freeman
Sun Sentinel
June 18, 2018
A sex offender who raped a 69-year-old West Boca widow while wearing a beeping GPS ankle monitor during his probation was sentenced Monday to life in state prison.
But Robert Maldonado claimed he was a victim too, having suffered psychological problems from witnessing his mother’s murder when he was 11.
“I’m very anti-violence against women,” said Maldonado, 40. “I know it’s kind of hard to believe.”
Prison probation officials had strapped the GPS monitor on Maldonado after he completed a prison sentence for a 2000 rape in West Delray. He was not confined to house arrest. Nor was he being tracked 24/7 by the sheriff’s office.
Maldonado’s GPS was monitored by probation officers. But when the monitor alerted a probation officer that Maldonado had broken his curfew on March 30, 2016, the crime was already in progress. So it didn’t protect the victim.
“I am here just because of the mercy of God,” the victim told Circuit Judge Glenn Kelley. “He would have killed me.”
Maldonado was allowed to be out when he broke into the victim’s residence at 9:12 p.m., in the hour before his 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
Assistant State Attorney Chrichet Mixon said Maldonado’s rape of the elderly woman, despite knowing he was being tracked, shows that he is a “serial rapist” who must never be set free again.
“Knowing that his whereabouts are monitored … he’s unable to control his behavior, his desires, and his impulses,” Mixon said. “He has shown this court what he is capable of.”
Maldonado was sentenced Monday only for violating probation, based on the judge’s findings after recent hearings.
After explaining that his passion is art — he even showed the judge one of his drawings — he insisted, “I’m not a bad person. I’ve made a lot of dumb mistakes in my life — too many.”
Maldonado continues to face the 2016 charges of sexual battery, kidnapping, carjacking and burglary with assault or battery. The judge set an Aug. 10 hearing to determine a trial date.
Prosecutors plan to use the GPS records to prove to a jury that Maldonado broke into the victim’s home, forced to drive to two places in her car, and raped her in the back seat before setting her free.
“He’s a danger to the community,” the victim testified Monday. “He’s a mean person. He needs to be locked up for the good of everybody.”
The South Florida Sun Sentinel is not identifying the woman due to the circumstances of the case.
Maldonado’s father and one of his two daughters, who is eight months pregnant with Maldonado’s first grandchild, testified on his behalf and asked the court for leniency.
Assistant Public Defender Harris Printz said he advised his client not to show remorse because of the pending charges and trial. He argued for a 20-year sentence on the probation violations, with credit for 14 years already served in prison.
“The Mr. Maldonado I know is kind, respectful, thoughtful and intelligent,” Printz said.
Judge Kelley said while that may be true in some respects, Maldonado’s criminal actions can’t be overlooked.
“Every rape … by virtue of the crime is a violent offense,” he said. “Under the circumstances of this case, I do believe a life sentence is appropriate.”
The defense plans to appeal the sentence based on an argument that Maldonado wasn’t supposed to be wearing the GPS monitor because a court had never ordered it.
Printz said he will appeal Kelley’s refusal to throw out all of the GPS evidence in the case, because authorities had no right to collect it or use it against Maldonado. They say obtaining the monitoring information is tantamount to an unreasonable search.
The judge has ruled prison probation officials made “an honest mistake and not deliberate or reckless conduct” to put the monitor on Maldonado.
“The GPS evidence at issue here is reliable and trustworthy and is probative of the Defendant's guilt or innocence,” Kelley wrote in an order last year.
When the victim met with detectives after she was raped, she mentioned that she heard repeated beeping sounds during the attack.
A detective then called a probation office to find out if any known sex offenders or predators on probation lived in the area, and Maldonado was quickly identified from the GPS data.
Prosecutor Mixon said that along with using the evidence from the monitor, the case against Maldonado is strong because vaginal swabs taken from the victim include the defendant’s DNA.
1 comment:
These monitors can be useful monitors of information, usually after the fact. They can not really be said to be a deterrent to anything, especially if the monitoring is half-assed, which it commonly is.
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