(SUFFOLK COUNTY, N.Y.) – Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney today announced that defendant Manuel Cedillo, 43, was sentenced to an aggregate of 30 years in prison after being found guilty after trial of two violent felony counts of Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child.
“The young victims in this case came in, bravely faced their abuser in court and told the truth about his crimes,” said District Attorney Tierney. “Because of their courage, this defendant will deservedly serve a substantial prison sentence.”
According to the evidence presented during trial, between the Spring of 2011 and February 2012, Cedillo, who was known to the victims’ family, sexually abused the two girls on separate occasions. The two victims are sisters, and were 8 and 5 years-old at the time the abuse began. The defendant sexually molested the older victim when she was between the ages of 8 and 9 years old. Cedillo also subjected the younger sister to sexual molestation during the same time period, when she was between the ages of 5 and 6.
The abuse stopped when the older daughter partially disclosed to her mother that the defendant had been touching her inappropriately. No other disclosure was made to the victims’ mother until eight years later, when the older sister noticed that the defendant was looking at her Instagram stories and she panicked that he was stalking her. After the older sister fully disclosed what Cedillo had done to her, the younger sister likewise disclosed the abuse that she had also suffered at the hands of the defendant.
Cedillo was convicted after a trial by jury on September 30, 2022, for engaging in a Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the First Degree, a class B violent felony, and for engaging in a Course of Sexual Conduct Against a Child in the Second Degree, a Class D violent felony.
The trial was heard before Acting County Court Judge, the Honorable Karen M. Wilutis. Cedillo was represented by Christopher Gioe, Esq.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys MacDonald Drane and Ashley Moruzzi of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau.