Marco Antonio Navabarrera
A convicted child molester has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted in February on multiple counts.
The District Attorney’s Office announced last week that Marco Antonio Navabarrera, 37 of San Jose, was sentenced by Judge Craig B. van Rooyen to 142-years and 8-months to life in prison for sexually abusing two minors between 2015 and 2019.
On Feb. 16, Navabarrera was convicted on eight felony counts of sexual abuse of a minor. His victims, now 9 and 16-years old testified in his sentencing hearing how the crimes affected them.
“One specifically described how their childhood was stolen from them by the cruel acts of molestation at such a young age,” the D.A.’s Office said in a news release, “and over a 7-year period. The foster mom to one of the victims told the judge that her son, ‘would not be [the defendant’s] victim, he would be a victor.’”
Judge van Rooyen handed down the maximum penalty under the law telling the defendant, “You are a serial predator, you destroyed the family; you will face the consequences.”
District Attorney Dan Dow said, “We applaud these young survivors for speaking out and having their voices heard. We hope that their courage to report and testify and the resulting long prison sentence will encourage other victims of all ages in our community to report and seek help from law enforcement.
“We will hold child predators accountable and when they are convicted, we will do everything legally possible to remove them from society so that they cannot victimize a vulnerable child ever again.”
This case was investigated by the County Sheriff’s Office, the D.A.’s Bureau of Investigation and the Child Abuse Interview Team. Deputy D.A. Kristin Barnard of the Sexual Violence Unit prosecuted the case.
