State Appellate Court upholds conviction, 20-year prison sentence for Ridgeway man
RIDGEWAY – The State Appellate Court last week upheld the decision by an acting Orleans County Court judge who sentenced a Ridgeway man to 20 years in prison.
Gerardo Quiros
Gerardo Quiros, 33, was convicted by a jury of sexual assault and rape charges during a trial in July 2018. He held a woman against her will for several weeks, while physically and sexually assaulting her.
He was found guilty by the jury of rape in the first degree (four counts), criminal sexual act in the first degree (three counts), criminal possession of a controlled substance in the seventh degree (two counts), assault in the third degree, endangering the welfare of a child, criminal mischief in the fourth degree and unlawful possession of marijuana.
On Sept. 17, 2018, he was sentenced by Sara Sheldon, a Niagara County Court judge, to 20 years in prison, plus 10 years of post-release supervision.
Quiros, during sentencing, declined to address the court. His attorney, Scott Riordan, advised Quiros not to speak at sentencing because they would immediately appeal the conviction and sentence.
Riordan filed an appeal, and it was unanimously rejected on Friday by the State Appellate Division, Fourth Department.
Riordan in the appeal said the judge should have dismissed the indictment against Quiros because of testimony from a former girlfriend. Riordan said Quiros shouldn’t have faced multiple counts in the indictment because the former girlfriend didn’t provide specific details on precise dates.
The victim testified there were as many as 40 incidents of forced sexual assault. The prosecutor, District Attorney Joe Cardone, had clear dates for 10 counts of criminal sexual act in the first degree. Those counts should all be treated as separate counts or crimes, the court said.
“The victim’s testimony was detailed, graphic, and corroborated by receipts, photographs, and emails that allowed the victim to pinpoint the precise dates on which each of those incidents of forced sexual intercourse occurred,” the court said. “Because defendant was convicted only of those counts of [rape in the first degree] where pretrial notice of specific instances was given and where those specific instances were proved at trial, we conclude that dismissal of those counts as duplicitous was not required.”
Quiros was indicted in May 2017 for repeatedly raping and sodomizing his now former girlfriend in March 15 to April 29, 2017 at his house on Ridge Road.
He was subject of a manhunt on April 29, 2017. Quiros fled before police arrived, leading to a massive police search of the area and a stay-in-place order for nearby residents. The search was called off after several hours when police determined Quiros was no longer in the area. He was arrested two days later in Lockport.
He posted $200,000 bail and then faced other charges from a separate case. On Jan. 1, 2018, he barged into a home on Root Road in Barre and tried to drag a new girlfriend out of the house by her feet. He was stopped by her brother, who made Quiros leave at gunpoint.
Quiros pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors – criminal trespass in the second degree and attempted unlawful imprisonment in the first degree. He was sentenced to a year in the county jail for those crimes, with that incarceration to be served concurrently with the state prison sentence.
