Middletown Man Convicted Of Child Predatory Sexual Assault

GOSHEN, NY — A Middletown man was found guilty Tuesday of raping a child.

Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said Cecilio Navarro, a.k.a. Cecilio Navarro Rodriquez, 35 of Middletown, was convicted by a jury of predatory sexual assault against a child, second-degree rape and third-degree rape.

Navarro faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in state prison on the most serious charge, the district attorney said.

He was sent to the Orange County Jail without bail following the jury’s verdict.

Prosecutors said that evidence proved that between Dec. 1, 2016, and Oct. 27, 2018, Navarro engaged in two or more acts of sexual conduct with a child less than 13 years old.

Evidence also showed that in 2019 he had sexual intercourse with a child less than 15 years old, and in 2021 engaged in sexual intercourse with a child less than 17 years old.

Navarro was arrested by the Orange County Child Investigation Unit and has been in jail since June 14.

The trial began March 7.

Hoovler said Navarro faces a sentence of 25 to life in prison on the predatory sexual assault charge, seven years for the second-degree rape charge and four years for the third-degree rape charge.

The DA’s office will recommend that Navarro be sentenced to the legal maximum on all of those charges and that the sentence be ordered to run consecutively for a total sentence of 36 years to life in state prison.

Hoovler said that the jury’s verdict confirmed that Navarro was, since 2016, a sexual predator preying on the most helpless type of victim — a child.

“Children are the most innocent and vulnerable of victims,” he said, “and we must do everything in our power to protect them from sexual predators.”