GRAFTON, N.D. -- A Grafton man was sentenced to 20 years in prison after he was given a new trial for sexually assaulting a young girl.
Jose M. Martinez, 63, entered an Alford plea Friday in Walsh County District Court to one charge of gross sexual imposition, a Class A felony.
By entering an Alford plea, Martinez maintained his innocence but admitted the prosecution had enough evidence to prove he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Two other gross sexual imposition charges against him were dismissed.
Martinez was charged in 2013 after a woman told authorities she had been sexually assaulted in 2005 by Martinez when she was 8- or 9-year-old, according to the information filed against Martinez.
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The woman first disclosed the sexual abuse to a case manager when she was 15 years old, who prompted her to tell her parents, according to court records.
A jury found Martinez guilty in February 2014 of one count of gross sexual imposition but could not come to a unanimous decision on the other two counts. Martinez was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
But the North Dakota Supreme Court overturned his conviction in July and gave him a new trial, finding Judge M. Richard Geiger did not require certain important information to be included in his instructions to the jury.
The victim told jurors Martinez sexually assaulted her on three different occasions, which is why there were three counts of gross sexual imposition.
However, the instructions to the jury, in which the charges against Martinez were laid out, did not distinguish among the three different occasions. The justices found the omission jeopardized Martinez’s constitutional right to due process and was an “obvious error.”
Martinez was scheduled to go to trial again Feb. 22, facing the same three charges as before the Alford plea was entered Friday.
The charges would have been Class AA felonies under North Dakota law, each with a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole if he was convicted.
But under state law in 2005, the allegation constituted a Class A felony, with a top penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
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On Friday, the judge granted Martinez credit for 1 year and 273 days served in his sentence. He must also register as a sex offender for life and be under supervised probation for five years after he is released.
