Santos, 22, will be sentenced today, Tuesday.
He has been detained at the Department of Corrections facility since his arrest June last year.
The court imposed a $100,000 cash bail on Santos.
Wiseman said Santos has been adjudicated guilty of conspiracy to commit sexual assault on Oct. 7, 2010.
On Dec. 29, 2010, Wiseman granted the motion to dismiss without prejudice the charges of kidnapping and raping a minor filed against the other defendants: Alfred P. Hocog, 18; Ivan Jones Castro, 33; and Joseph Cabrera Camacho Jr., 31, as moved by the prosecution. They have denied the charges.
In his order denying Santos’ motion to withdraw his guilty plea, Wiseman said the defendant “has never maintained his innocence, the guilty plea was knowingly and voluntarily entered into under oath, and all other rights delivered during the change of plea colloquy were understood and acknowledged by [Santos] under oath.”
Wiseman said Santos’ “alleged reasoning for failing to move to withdraw earlier are not an adequate basis for withdrawal.”
Santos, the judge added, “does not dispute the fact that he received benefit of the plea agreement whereby the crimes of kidnapping, sexual assault in the first degree, aggravated assault and battery and disturbing the peace were dismissed upon his plea of guilty.”
The penalties for these crimes, Wiseman noted, could result in a sentence of life imprisonment or a total up to 50 years.
“The obligations of [Santos] to cooperate and testify against the former co-defendants was to be a benefit to the government and if they are not interested in availing themselves of such benefit that is their prerogative. There is no loss or harm to [Santos] resulting from the government’s forbearance on this matter,” Wiseman said.
“What [Santos] fails to realize is that [his] dislike of the government’s policies is not an adequate basis for withdrawing his plea. Neither this court nor any other court has the authority to control who the government elects to prosecute,” Wiseman said.
Assistant Attorney General Brian Gallagher, who is prosecuting the case, has recommended a 30-year jail term for Santos, all suspended except for the first 18 years.
Santos, represented by court-appointed attorney Joseph N. Camacho, will serve the full 15 years in prison, without the possibility of parole, Gallagher stated in his sentencing brief filed in Superior Court.
A source noted that although there was no DNA evidence linking the defendants to the rape incident, Santos was a witness to the crime of kidnapping.
