Court: Man not entitled to new sentence in child rape case

A Tamaqua man convicted of raping a 12-year-old girl is not entitled to a new sentence, a state Supreme Court panel has ruled.

The decision overturns a July 2015 state Superior Court ruling that vacated the sentence of Angel A. Resto.

Resto, 23, was convicted on Aug. 25, 2014, of raping the girl. Schuylkill County President Judge William Baldwin on Nov. 24, 2014 sentenced Resto to a total of 10 to 21 years in state prison.

He argued that he was entitled to be resentenced because facts found by a jury, not a judge, should have decided his mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years,

The appeal referenced the 2013 case of Alleyne v. United States.

In that case, the United States Supreme Court held that “facts that increase mandatory minimum sentences must be submitted to the jury” and must be found beyond a reasonable doubt.

“Contrary to Appellee’s position, a conviction returned by a jury to which a mandatory minimum sentence directly attaches is not the same as an aggravating fact that increases a mandatory minimum sentence. In any event, such a conviction is itself a contemporaneous jury determination, and the concern of Alleyne is with sentencing enhancements tied to facts to be determined by a judge at sentencing,” Chief Justice Thomas G. Saylor wrote in the Feb. 21 ruling.

A jury of five women and seven men in August 2014 convicted Resto after deliberating for less than an hour.

The crimes surfaced in May 2013 when the child’s mother contacted police after reading posts on a social media site that revealed the child was sexually active.

She learned from the child that Resto had been having sexual relations with her in January 2013.

At the trial, the child’s friend, who was in the house at the time of the incident, testified that Resto came to the house and took the child into a bedroom.

After Resto left and the child came out of the bedroom, the friend noticed there was blood on the mattress.

Then-Tamaqua Cpl. Henry Woods arrested Resto after the child’s mother contacted him.

Resto denied the accusations, but DNA evidence from the fluid on the mattress indicated it was he who left it there.