A convicted child sex offender got a 100-year sentence, believed to be among the longest ever handed down for such a crime in Maryland.
Circuit Judge Patrick Cavanaugh sentenced Carlos Cortez, 42, of Essex, on Monday after a jury convicted him of raping and sexually abusing a girl for several years, starting when the girl was 5.
“I asked for50 years and I got 100,” said Baltimore County Assistant State?s Attorney Michelle Samoryk. “These offenders never get what they deserve, but this guy did.”
Cavanaugh ordered 25-year sentences for each of four counts of sexual abuse of a minor.
Samoryk said the abuse came to light after the girl contracted genital herpes at the age of 10 and told the doctor what happened.
Cortez then fled the state but was later caught, Samoryk said.
The girl told police in 2006 that Cortez, her mother?s fiance, had been abusing her since the age of 5, when she lived in Harford County, and continued when the family moved to Essex, police said.
Cortez would abuse the girl when her mother was out of the house working or at Bible study, according to charging documents.
The girl?s mother “confronted Carlos after she learned this information and he has since moved out and took all of his belongings,” charging documents state.
Cortez also has pending child sexual abuse charges in Harford County.
Cavanaugh has made news several times for handing out lengthy sentences, including a 100-year sentence for a former Randallstown High School student convicted in a school shooting that injured four, leaving one partially paralyzed.
Cavanaugh also gave a Baltimore County man a 30-year sentence for writing more than $20,000 worth of bad checks. That sentence was later lowered to 18 months by a three-judge panel.
