Deliberations begin in trial of Lynn man accused of molesting child

SALEM – A jury listened intently Tuesday as the prosecutor in the trial of a Lynn man accused of molesting an 11-year-old girl over several months in 2008 used the victim?s words as she described the alleged sexual abuse inflicted on the girl by a family friend she trusted.?He took advantage of her youth,” Assistant District Attorney Marcia Slingerland said in her closing argument at Salem Superior Court.Salvador Fuentes, 40, of 14 Rock Ave., Lynn, is charged with four counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 for allegedly performing oral sex on the girl multiple times and later sending her text messages in which he called the girl his “love.”Fuentes, who lived in apartment directly above the girl and her family, would allegedly molest the little girl when she came over after school, where Fuentes? girlfriend would watch her until her parents got home, Slingerland said.?Her parents trusted the defendant,” she said. “They had no reason to believe anything would happen to their daughter.”The prosecutor, who stood directly in front of the jury and gestured often with her hands, said the girl told Fuentes she felt guilty about the acts because “she thought it might be a sin,” but that he assured her “it?s not a sin if you love each other.”The physical abuse stopped after the girl was severely injured in a bike accident and hospitalized for a month, but the older man began sending the then-12-year-old girl text messages several months later, telling her he loved her, Slingerland said.Slingerland told jurors the girl had remained quiet about the abuse for over a year because Fuentes told her that if she told her family he would stop helping them pay their bills. But defense attorney Stephen Limone of Melrose argued in his closing statement that the allegations were nothing more than lies told by a “profoundly confused child with a wild imagination.”He said when her mother saw a text message from Fuentes that said, “For my love” with pictures of hearts in it, she confronted the girl and told her, “You have to tell the truth.”?That pre-supposes that maybe the mother had a history of the little girl lying,” Limone said,He argued she had lied to her mother in order to avoid having her new cell phone, a 12th birthday present, taken away.?Her mother backed her into a corner, and she told [her mother] what she wanted to hear,” he said.Limone said that March 17, 2009, when the girl?s mother first saw the text message, was “when everything turned upside down for my defendant,” but Slingerland told the jury that when the victim?s family confronted Fuentes, he initially denied everything, and then went to their house and told them he would “face the consequences.”Limone ended his argument by reminding jurors that Fuentes? girlfriend testified that she saw the girl looking at pornography on the computer several times prior to the allegations.?We?re talking about a confused little girl with a bit of imagination,” he said,The jury began deliberations around noon and will continue Wednesday morning at 9 a.m., presiding Judge Douglas Wilkins said.Two of the four people watching the trial, along with Fuentes, wore headphones to help them translate what the lawyers said into Spanish. The victim, who testified last week, was not in the courtroom.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].