A San Benito County jury this week found a 22-year-old Hollister
man guilty of sexual assault on a 19-month-old child after a
five-day trial.
A San Benito County jury this week found a 22-year-old Hollister man guilty of sexual assault on a 19-month-old child after a five-day trial.
Jonathan Fidone was found guilty Tuesday at the San Benito County Courthouse of felony counts of sexual penetration by a foreign object, forcible lewd act upon a child and aggravated sexual assault of a child stemming from an incident in July of last year.
Fidone now faces 15 years to life in prison after being found guilty of aggravated sexual assault on a child. He also faces an additional three to eight years in prison because of the lewd acts conviction.
Originally, Fidone faced charges of felony child abuse and misdemeanor access card theft, according to the court records.
Investigators believed a purchase from the card was used in the crime. That charge was dismissed because Deputy District Attorney Karen Forcum wanted to “simplify” the case for the jury, she said.
“Those were secondary allegations,” she said. “The focus of this case was on the sexual abuse charges.”
Fidone was arrested July 17, 2010, after a witness saw him in a locked bedroom with the 19-month-old child. The witness, the cousin of the child’s mother, watched Fidone take the child into a locked bedroom. Fidone was watching over the child because her mother, and Fidone’s girlfriend, was out of town, according to court records.
After breaking down the door, the mother’s cousin witnessed Fidone performing lewd acts with the child.
During the five-day trial, the jury heard testimony from four Hollister Police Department officers, a nurse at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and two forensic science technicians from the Department of Justice. Hospital records, pictures and blood evidence also were used during the trial.
Other testimony included the witness and the child’s mother.
Deputy District Attorney Karen Forcum thought the jury did an excellent job observing the facts and giving Fidone a fair trial despite the nature of the crime, she said.
“Sometimes the nature of the trial can make it difficult for the jury,” she said. “The jury did a good job.”
Jury deliberations lasted around three-and-a-half hours, Forcum said.
