A former youth football coach with a reported criminal history dating back to 1995 pleaded no contest Tuesday to charges of child molestation, possession of child pornography and child annoyance, according to the Yolo County District Attorney’s Office.
Juan Manuel Vuittonet Hernandez Jr., 37, of Woodland, will receive an agreed-upon prison sentence of 21 years, four months in July, District Attorney Jeff Reisig said in a news release.
Hernandez’s attorney, Steven Sabbadini, could not be reached for comment Tuesday afternoon.
Reisig said Hernandez sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl, a family friend whose brothers he coached in a recreational youth football league in Esparto. He also reportedly bought the girl a cell phone and sent her inappropriate messages.
The girl reported the assault, which occurred last fall, to Woodland police in early January. Hernandez was arrested at his home in the 300 block of North Street on Jan. 19.
At the time, Hernandez was on probation for possession of stolen property, a Sutter County conviction stemming from a July 2009 arrest, online records show.
Woodland police detectives seized Hernandez’s computer, a forensic analysis of which revealed more than 100 images of child pornography, according to Reisig. One of the images reportedly showed a man’s hand touching a child’s “private area.”
“Investigators took photographs of Hernandez’s hands in court,” Reisig said in the news release. “A comparison of the photographs matched Hernandez’s hand to the hand of the man molesting the girl in the photograph on Hernandez’s computer.”
A subsequent analysis of Hernandez’s cell phone led to the identification of a second victim, a 10-year-old girl to whom Hernandez reportedly sent inappropriate text messages, Reisig said.
In addition to the child molestation, pornography and annoyance charges, Hernandez admitted to a prior strike stemming from a 1995 conviction for willfully discharging a firearm in a grossly negligent manner.
“What started off as a case involving one serious act of child molestation exploded into multiple molestations and possession of hundreds of images of child pornography,” prosecuting attorney Carolyn Palumbo said.
Hernandez is scheduled to be sentenced July 5 by Yolo Superior Court Judge Timothy Fall.
— Reach Lauren Keene at [email protected] or (530) 747-8048. Follow her at www.twitter.com/laurenkeene