Published: July 11, 2009 02:03 am      

Man reaches plea deal in molestation case

A suspect at the center of an immigration battle has entered into a plea agreement for child molesting and is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Jorge Avila pleaded guilty to two counts of class C felony child molesting. He would be sentenced to four years in prison with one year suspended to probation on each charge with the two counts to run concurrently.

Avila, 22, is accused of molesting a 7-year-old girl from June 2004 until August 2005 in Jeffersonville. He was originally charged with two counts of class A felony child molesting and one count of class C felony child molesting.

He was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement after a Superior Court No. 1 ruling that Avila had been held in jail too long without the case going to trial. Under Indiana statute, a defendant must be brought to trial within a certain time period. Avila is an illegal immigrant.

The prosecution is not held accountable if the case is delayed for reasons out of their control, and Deputy Prosecutor Shelley Marble argued his initial jury trial was continued because of court congestion. However, that was not shown in the chronological case summary and Avila was released.

Prosecutors were told Avila would be deported, but after more than a month of trying to find a way to keep him in the country to face his charges, Avila was returned to Clark County after an arrest warrant was issued.

The plea agreement was filed last month. Judge Vicki Carmichael can choose to accept the agreement at a sentencing hearing at 1:30 p.m. Aug. 3.