Man, 42, pleads guilty to raping girl,14, in 2005

An east Trinidad man pleaded guilty to raping a 14-year-old in 2005 and is expected to be put on the sex offenders’ registry.

However, the judge who is expected to sentence him next week Wednesday will hear submissions from his attorney on an application for an exemption to his name being put on the public website.

On Friday, Roger “Cherokee” Hernandez pleaded guilty to rape and grievous sexual assault of the then teenager on July 8, 2005.

Last week, at a maximum sentence indication hearing, Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds said she was minded to sentence him to 12 years for the rape, and eight years for the grievous sexual assault.

Hernandez accepted the judge’s proposed sentences and pleaded guilty on Friday.

With a one-third discount and the time he has spent on remand on the charges, he can be released when the judge sentences him next week.

However, she said she intended to put him on the sex offenders’ registry but will hear his submissions on the exemption application.

The judge is also expected to impose reporting conditions for him to report to the St Joseph police station as he intends to live at Maracas St Joseph when he is released so he can provide for his six children, ages nine-16.

According to the evidence, read out by prosecutor Ravita Persad-Maharaj, his victim, at the time a form 2 student, was working at a shoe store in Arima as a sales clerk when, after liming with friends at a nearby pizza place, she met Hernandez at the taxi stand to Valencia.

Hernandez worked nearby.

He invited the girl to a bar nearby, and after some time they went to a room above the bar where he pushed against her to force her to lie on the bed.

He tried to unbuckle her belt but she resisted, telling him she was not going to do anything.

Hernandez told her to “ease her body before he bore her belly” which, according to the prosecutor, she took to mean he would stab her.

He raped his victim for two minutes while holding her down. He showered and forced the girl to perform oral sex on him two times before threatening to stab her again. He then left the room.

The girl reported the incident ten days later. Persad-Maharaj said she did not do so before because she was scared and did not feel like talking. Hernandez was arrested on July 22 and, after he was positively identified, he was charged with the offences.

In a plea of mitigation, Hernandez’s attorney, public defender Adelia Jordan said he was now 42 and had a tough childhood. He left school at the form-four level, and while in prison he completed some classes and was going to attempt CXC subjects but this was discontinued because of the pandemic.

Jordan said Hernandez spent almost nine years in prison, and admitted that while he was out on bail on the rape charge, he was convicted in 2011 for possession of ammunition.

She also said he was at low-risk of re-offending and had experience in sales, marketing and barbering.