FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Bridgeport, CT) – Joseph T. Corradino, State’s Attorney for the Judicial District of Fairfield, announced today that on June 14, 2023, the Honorable Earl B. Richards III sentenced Henry Becerril-Aldea, age 33, of the Bronx, N.Y., to 20 years in prison, suspended after 15 years served, followed by 10 years of probation, for sexually assaulting a minor.
After four days of evidence and three days of deliberations, a Superior Court jury in Fairfield on March 27, 2023 found Becerril-Aldea guilty of one count of Sexual Assault in the Second Degree in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53a-71(a)(1), one count of Risk of Injury to a Minor in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53-21(a)(1) and two counts of Risk of Injury to a Minor in violation of Connecticut General Statutes § 53-21(a)(2).
According to evidence introduced at trial, from April 2016 through October 2016, the defendant, who was 26 at the time, had repeatedly sexually assaulted a 13-year-old victim in Bridgeport. When confronted by the victim’s mother, the defendant repeatedly threatened to harm the victim, her family and take the victim out of the country if she told anyone about his behavior. The victim had recently relocated to the U.S. from Puerto Rico and did not speak English. At the time of the sexual assaults, the defendant was in the New York Police Academy as a school resource officer candidate.
At the sentencing hearing, Judge Richards commented that the defendant had taken away the youth and innocence of the victim. As conditions of his probation, Judge Richards ordered a lifetime protective order prohibiting Becerril-Aldea from having any contact with the victim, 10 years on the Connecticut Sex Offender Registry, no contact with any minors throughout the period of his probation and community-based sex offender treatment.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Joseph J. Harry, with assistance from Inspector Juan Gonzalez.