An Onalaska man accused of sexual misconduct with an 18-year-old girl he hired to help with yard work in the summer of 2022 was sentenced Wednesday after he entered an Alford plea to fourth-degree assault with sexual motivation.
The plea, entered on April 12, allows Trevor Sanchez, 68, to take advantage of a plea deal without admitting guilt. The plea acknowledges that existing evidence could lead to a jury finding him guilty.
He was convicted by a jury in January 2024 on an indecent liberties charge stemming from an unrelated case where he sexually assaulted an 18-year-old woman during a massage at his residence in late October or early November 2023.
Sanchez is in the process of appealing the conviction to the state Court of Appeals.
In addition to the indecent liberties charge, which is a class A felony, the jury found Sanchez guilty of an aggravating factor — specifically “that he knew, or should have known, that the victim was particularly vulnerable or incapable of resistance” — that allowed the judge to sentence him above the standard range of 67 to 89 months.
He was sentenced April 3 to 178 months, or just under 15 years, to life in prison. A lifetime no-contact order protecting the victim is in place.
The victim reported the assault on Nov. 5 and said “it happened approximately a week before she told anybody.”
When interviewed by a Lewis County Sheriff’s Office deputy on Nov. 9, the victim “explained she was scared of Mr. Sanchez due to his size and she pretended to be asleep during the touching because she wanted to pretend it didn’t happen,” according to court documents.
The victim reported Sanchez, who is not a licensed massage therapist, had “previously offered to give her a back rub and she agreed this time in part to get him to stop asking,” according to court documents.
Sanchez’s conviction on the 2022 assault won’t add any jail time to his ongoing sentence, as he was sentenced to 160 days in jail with credit for 160 days already served.
The sentence includes a two-year sexual assault protection order in favor of the victim.
In that case, Sanchez was accused of grabbing the victim by the wrist and forcibly placing her hand on his genitals, according to court documents. When the victim told him she was struggling with a cold, he allegedly “said he was going to feel her lungs in regard to her cold” and “stuck his hand down her shirt and inside her bra between her breasts” before driving her home, according to court documents.
The incident reportedly occurred on Aug. 29, 2022.
Sanchez reportedly hired the victim to help him with yard work and housework in July 2022 after she responded to his Facebook advertisement “asking for teenagers to come and do yard work on his property,” according to court documents.
He allegedly exposed himself to her several times before the misconduct “escalated” on Aug. 29.
Sanchez adamantly denied the allegations when he was questioned by law enforcement, according to court documents.
Both convictions require Sanchez to register as a sex offender upon his release from jail.
Sanchez was already required to register due to a 1997 second-degree child molestation conviction on his record, court documents indicate. He also has a misdemeanor indecent exposure conviction on his record from 1987.
