Man gets 30 years in prison for sexual abuse of a minor

Habitual offender Donald Ayuyu Hocog was resentenced yesterday to the maximum of 30 years in prison for sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl.

The 49-year-old Hocog was accused of abusing the girl starting when she was just 6 years old.

“This court has imposed the maximum sentence allowed by law…so that David Ayuyu Hocog will never hurt anyone anymore for the next 30 years,” said Superior Court Associate Judge Joseph N. Camacho.

Hocog is required to register as a sex offender.

The 30-year prison term is the same sentence that Camacho first imposed on Hocog in December 2013. Hocog had appealed his conviction and sentence.

In January 2016, the CNMI Supreme Court vacated Hocog’s conviction for one charge and sentences for sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree and assault and battery. The high court vacated his conviction because it violated double jeopardy. Saipan Tribune opted not to indicate the charge to protect the victim.

The high court also vacated defendant’s sentences for sex abuse of a minor in the first degree and assault and battery because Camacho failed to order a presentence investigation report.

The high court remanded the case for resentencing.

At yesterday’s resentencing, assistant attorney general Teri Tenorio recommended a sentence of 31 years for Hocog.

Assistant public defender Nancy Dominski, counsel for Hocog, recommended a sentence of 10 years in prison.

Camacho said the victim’s statement shows that Hocog’s crime continues to damage her—her sense of humiliation, lack of trust in men, mental anguish, and fear that Hocog will be released and will find and kidnap her and her mother—and so something “bad” might happen to her.

“It is the hope of this court that, perhaps for the victim and her family, the healing can begin. Children are a blessing and the CNMI’s most valuable treasure,” Camacho said.

A jury found Hocog guilty of one count of sexual abuse of a minor in the first degree. Camacho, who decided on the misdemeanor charges, also found him guilty of one count of assault and battery and another count.

Police said that on March 13, 2013, a Division of Youth Services representative interviewed the then-13-year-old girl who said that Hocog began sexually abusing her when she was just 6 years old. She said the last sexual abuse happened in 2011.