Closing Arguments Monday In Thermal Man's Molestation Trial

THERMAL, CA — Closing statements are scheduled Monday in the trial of a 36-year-old Thermal man accused of repeatedly sexually molesting his girlfriend's young daughter, who broke her silence years later.

Alfonso Gonzalez Meraz is charged with four counts each of forcible lewd acts on a child and sexual assault of a minor under 10 years old, as well as two counts of oral copulation under force or duress and one count of kidnapping to commit rape.

The prosecution rested Thursday in the roughly weeklong trial, and the defense announced it would not be summoning witnesses, prompting Riverside County Superior Court Judge Sam Shouka to set closing arguments for Monday morning at the Riverside Hall of Justice.

The jury is expected to start deliberations immediately afterward.

The defendant is being held on $6 million bail at the Robert Presley Jail.

According to a trial brief filed by the District Attorney's Office, the victim, whose identity was not disclosed and who is now 21 years old, was allegedly targeted by Meraz from the first months he began living with her mother in the summer of 2009 to the time that the woman, identified only as "Anita," ended their relationship in the summer of 2015.

The victim divulged to her mother what allegedly had transpired in the fall of that year, and Anita reported it to sheriff's deputies, but the investigation dragged on another four years before sufficient evidence could be gathered to justify a criminal complaint, the brief said.

The victim told detectives she'd tried in suggestive ways to alert her mother to what allegedly was going on in the Thermal home, but the woman apparently paid little attention while Meraz remained her live-in boyfriend, prosecutors wrote.

Court papers alleged the girl was "sexually touched and raped by the defendant from when she was 6 until she was 11."

"The victim said it happened too many times to count," the brief stated. "She said that Meraz started using a condom after she had her first period at age 10."

There were alleged instances of the defendant forcing the girl to orally copulate him and him doing the same to her, as well as kissing and groping her regularly under her clothes, according to the prosecution.

In a final effort to elicit some acknowledgement from the defendant, a pretext phone call was set up in September 2019, during which the victim called Meraz and discussed what he had allegedly done to her as a child. The brief said the recorded conversation led to the defendant making "adoptive admissions," which provided sufficient basis to arrest him.

When detectives asked him directly about the victim's allegations, he told them, "she is a good girl and is not a liar, nor does she exaggerate," according to court papers.

The defendant has no documented prior felony convictions in Riverside County.

If convicted, he could face life in prison with the possibility of parole.

—City News Service