Edwards man receives 8 years to life after being found guilty of sexual assault on a child, aggravated incest

After a jury found 45-year-old Yeison Torres Rodrigues guilty of sexual assault of a minor this spring, a judge on Friday sentenced him to serve “an indeterminate amount of time” from eight years to life in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

The indeterminate sentence means that Torres Rodrigues must serve at least eight years before becoming eligible for parole, but could remain in prison for the rest of his life depending on the parole board’s decision.

Torres Rodrigues, of Edwards, was arrested in November 2023 after being accused of sexually assaulting a member of his family. He has been in the Eagle County jail since that time and will receive credit for 668 days served in his sentence.

Torres Rodrigues maintained his innocence throughout the ordeal, pleading not guilty and opting to give no statement at his sentencing on Friday.

Several issues were presented after a jury found Torres Rodrigues guilty in the spring, delaying the sentencing. Among the issues presented was a statement alleged by the defense to constitute a desire from the child victim to have their statements recanted. As a result, Torres Rodrigues’ attorneys had asked for a retrial, but that motion was denied on Friday.

Support Local Journalism

Donate

“The court can’t help but wonder whether (the victim’s recantation was) a reaction to how destroyed their family must be because of these events, or to take them at their face,” said District Court Judge Jonathan Shamis. “Ultimately, the court did not find (the victim’s) recantation credible.”

Shamis said there was an ample amount of forensic evidence, including DNA evidence, to establish Torres Rodrigues’ guilt without the victim’s statements.

“Arguably, the forensic interviewer could or should have handled the interview differently to be more complete,” Shamis said. “But the argument of the defense — to suggest that any time a witness may be given an opportunity to provide information, that if they provide different or additional information, that would then constitute new evidence — would suggest that there’s never really an end to a proceeding, because if they say something new or different at the subsequent proceeding, that would open the door for a new trial.”

Other issues with the case were presented at sentencing, including the fact that the verdict forms in the case had disappeared.

“I find that unacceptable, but because the forms were read into the record and there is a transcript of that, and the jury was polled and given the opportunity to correct what was read into the record … I think the court concludes that that would constitute a harmless error,” Shamis said.

Shamis said there were other unstated issues with the investigation that were problematic for the court, as well.

“The question for the court is even if individually any of the issues were corrected and would amount to harmless error, whether the cumulation of all of the missteps would constitute grounds for a new trial,” Shamis said. “But at the end of the day, it seems that based on the entirety of the proceedings, the court isn’t going to grant that at this time.”

Torres Rodrigues was found guilty of three separate charges — sexual assault on a child, sexual assault on a child who is under 15 by a person in a position of trust, and aggravated incest. Shamis sentenced him to a four-years-to-life sentence and two eight-years-to-life sentences to run concurrently.

“To minimize what you were found guilty of is to say ‘you were wrong to speak out,’ and that is not a message the court can righteously give,” Shamis said, addressing Torres Rodrigues and referencing his victim.

The defense indicated that Torres Rodrigues intends to appeal the decision, and Shamis said he is welcome to do so.

“Certainly, we’ve had a chance to experience many flaws within the system, and the court has done its absolute best to appropriately address each and every one of them, and if it turns out that any of them give rise to a different outcome in this court, I would welcome that,” Shamis said. “But based on what I have to work with, that is what the court believes is the appropriate sentence.”