Jose Isidoro Rivera-Troncoso | Bonneville County Jail
IDAHO FALLS – A local man who pleaded guilty to child sexual abuse was sent to prison Tuesday.
Jose Isidoro Rivera-Troncoso, 43, was sentenced by District Judge Dane Watkins Jr. to a minimum of six and a maximum of 20 years in prison with credit for two days already spent in jail.
Rivera-Troncoso was initially charged with one count of felony child sexual abuse by soliciting a minor under 16 to participate in a sexual act and two counts of felony lewd conduct with a child under 16.
In March, he accepted a plea agreement in which he agreed to plead guilty to one count of felony child sexual abuse by soliciting a minor under 16 to participate in a sexual act if the prosecution agreed to drop the two counts of felony lewd conduct with a child under 16.
Before sentencing, Watkins received many letters of support from Rivera-Troncoso’s family and friends, describing him as “outgoing, caring and overall a good person.”
“I do believe that this man is a good man and that the accusations against him are gut-wrenching to hear,” says one of the letters of support. “Although Jose is not perfect, as many of us aren’t, he does possess a lot of good qualities, and being a good father, godfather and man happen to be a few of them.”
Bonneville County Prosecutor Randy Neal says that the hefty sentence was given due to two main aggravating factors: Rivera-Troncoso was a blood-relative of the victim, and the frequency of the assaults was very high.
“This was a severe case for those involved, and we were pleased to see that the court recognized that as well,” says Neal. “This is what a sentence like that should be.”
RELATED | Man pleads not guilty to three charges of lewd conduct with a child
‘I know this is all my fault’
In February 2022, a Bonneville County Sheriff’s deputy received an email from the victim containing screenshots of a text conversation between herself and a man, identified as Rivera-Troncoso, from July.
The text messages detail a conversation between the two, with the victim accusing Rivera-Troncoso of sexually abusing her as a child.
The victim sent a message saying, “I tried taking my life several times because of you.”
She also wrote, “I have to go to therapy for all this. Do you know how embarrassing that is?” She then states that Rivera-Troncoso “acts like it never happened” and tells him she is “the one suffering from your actions.”
In the messages, Rivera-Troncoso apologizes to the victim by saying, “I know this is all my fault,” to which the victim responds, “I have to live with that every day until I die, and it’s something you forget.”
The email to the deputy included an audio recording between the victim and Rivera-Troncoso, where “(the victim) confronts Rivera-Troncoso about him making her do sexual acts,” according to court documents.
Rivera-Troncoso seems to know the victim went to the police, insinuated by saying, “Now with this every – everybody’s going to know what a pig I am. But that’s OK, you, I mean, if it’s – if this is supposed to be destiny, it is.”
Police reports state that by the end of listening to the audio recording and reading the text messages, “it was clear to (the deputy) that Rivera-Troncoso knew why officers wanted to talk to him and was trying to get (the victim) to feel guilty about reporting what happened.”
Rivera-Troncoso was arrested on April 12 and booked into the Bonneville County Jail, where his bond was set to $45,000, and a no-contact order was issued for the victim.
He later posted bond and was released to pretrial supervision with the condition he wore an ankle monitor.
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Source: eastidahonews.com
Man gets prison time for sexually assaulting girl
