Solano County Judge Delays Decision on Status of Vacaville Teen Rapist

FAIRFIELD — Good morning everyone, I'm Robert Rincon. We begin today with a story out of Solano County regarding a ruling that was postponed Thursday for a former Vacaville teen male suspect who raped, sodomized and tried to kill a 12-year-old girl and her toddler brother in which the suspect repeatedly stabbed both victims after breaking into their Vacaville home in 2010. The Suspect known as Alexander Cervantes, was 14 years old in 2010 at the time he committed the crimes.

According to Fairfield's Daily Republic news paper, "Judge Robert Fracchia put off until Jan. 3, 2019 a decision about whether recent voter-approved changes in the law retroactively require him to settle the case in juvenile court since Alexander Cervantes, now 22, was 14 when he broke into the victim’s Vacaville home in 2010 and went on a drunken, bloody, sexual rampage."

Cervantes was prosecuted as an adult in 2013 when he was found guilty of "Sexual assault, attempted murder, aggravated mayhem and several other felony charges." He was sentenced 68 years to life in prison.

If Solano County Judge Fracchia rules the case stays in the juvenile court system, then Cervantes, who's currently in Salinas Valley State Prison, would have to be released from custody in 2021, when he is 25 years old.

Jess Sullivan of Fairfield's Daily Republic newspaper also stated that "Cervantes stabbed the 12-year-old girl 42 times and stabbed her baby brother 13 times.

The Court of Appeal in 2017 overturned eight of Cervantes’ 15 felony convictions, returning the case back to Solano County."

Cervantes' lawyer known as Peter Obstler, wants his client to remain in the juvenile court system, especially in light of the passage of a new state law that takes effect in January that prevents 14- and 15-year-old offenders from being prosecuted as adults.

Prosecutors want the case transferred back to the adult criminal court system.

Prosecutors at a previous hearing in front of Fracchia relied on a challenge to the new law about 14- and 15-year-old juvenile offenders put forward by prosecutors in Santa Clara County.

Obstler stated that "Solano County prosecutors had pretty much 'cut and pasted' their written effort to get Cervantes into the adult system by using the court documents filed by prosecutors in Santa Clara County."

"A Santa Clara County judge earlier this month rejected that prosecutor’s efforts, calling it an improper 'hypertechnical construction' of the new law."

Live in Fairfield, Robert Rincon, Robert's Daily Report News.

Alexander Cervantes in Solano County Superior Court in 2010.

Photo Credit: Brad Zweerink of Fairfield's Daily Republic