Lynn man pleads guilty to rape of 12-year-old girl

SALEM – A Lynn teenager pleaded guilty Monday afternoon to raping a 12-year-old girl inside a Timson Street apartment last August, causing damage that required the girl to have surgery.Judge David Lowy sentenced David Echeverria, 18, of 65 Elm St. #1, to two and a half years in the Essex House of Correction with nine months to serve. Echeverria has already served 125 days of the sentence, his attorney Alice Jayne said. A rape conviction carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.The remainder of the sentence will be suspended for three years, and Echeverria will be on probation during that time and required to attend sex offender counseling and stay away from the victim and her family, Lowy said. He will also have to register as a sex offender and be monitored by GPS while on probation.Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Kirshenbaum requested a sentence of three to five years in state prison, and emphasized the differences in life experience and maturity between a 17-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl.”A 12-year-old needs to be protected by the law,” Kirshenbaum told Lowy. “This was (the victim)’s first sexual encounter and it will stay with her the rest of her life.”Echeverria, then 17, became acquainted with the victim over Facebook in August after the two had seen each other several times at Lynn Commons, Kirshenbaum said. On Aug. 11, the victim went to the teen’s home at 100 Timson St., where Echeverria invited her into his room and “suggested they get started,” she said. He then engaged in sexual activity with her.Afterwards, the girl began bleeding profusely, and was taken by her mother to Union Hospital, where she underwent surgery to repair a “hemorrhaging laceration in the vaginal wall,” Kirshenbaum said.”Everyone involved wishes this had never happened,” Jayne said prior to sentencing. “And it wouldn’t have happened if (Echeverria) knew how old (the victim) was. He was led to believe they were contemporaries.Lowy said he would take into account Echeverria’s clean criminal record and cooperation with police, but told Jayne he was responsible for knowing the age of the person he engaged in sexual relations with.”This is a heartbreakingly difficult case, particularly for the victim and her family,” Lowy said. “If there had been anything to suggest her tender age being a factor in her injury, this sentence would be significantly longer.”The victim’s mother was present at the sentencing, but declined to give a statement on behalf of her daughter.Kirshenbaum said the District Attorney’s Office chose to pursue the case, and that the victim was reluctant to give Echeverria’s name at first because peers, including Echeverria, ridiculed her on Facebook in the months following the incident.Lowy also required Echeverria to obtain his GED and have a job, or at least five pending job applications, upon his release from prison.Taylor Provost can be reached at [email protected].