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Judge turns down ex-firefighter bid to have his sentence cut
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Posted on Jan 13 2020
U.S. District Court for the NMI Chief Judge Ramona V. Manglona denied Friday a request of a former firefighter to have his 30-year prison term in a sex exploitation case reduced.
Manglona said that Richard Sullivan Benavente’s letter dated Nov. 17, 2019, presents no evidence or argument that allows a term of imprisonment to be modified once it is already imposed.
The judge said she interprets the letter as a motion for a sentencing modification.
Manglona said a “judgment of conviction that includes a sentence of imprisonment constitutes a final judgment and may not be modified by a district court except in limited circumstances.”
Benavente has been serving a 30-year prison term in a federal prison in the U.S. mainland for sexually exploiting two female minors.
In the letter that was filed in court last Dec. 30, Benavente begged to Manglona to reduce his sentence, saying his crime will haunt him for the rest of his life. The former firefighter apologized to the girls and their family, to the court, and community, for what he did.
He said he was under the influence of methamphetamine or “ice” and wasn’t thinking straight when he committed the crime.
Last April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit decided not to entertain further filings in Benavente’s case, saying the case is already closed.
Benavente is currently in a prison in New York.
In October 2017, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court’s imposition of 30-year prison sentence on Benavente.
Manglona sentenced Benavente in 2016 to the statutory maximum after explaining that the defendant had enticed or coerced the two minors into sex in exchange for drugs, and had violated his plea agreement.
In 2013, a federal grand jury indicted Benavente on several counts of sexual exploitation of a child. He cooperated with authorities and entered into a plea agreement with the U.S. government.
In 2014, Benavente pleaded guilty to a count of sexual exploitation of a child.
