NEW JERSEY
NJ.com
By Jessica Remo jremo@njadvancemedia.com,
NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
JERSEY CITY — An evangelical preacher who fled to Central America after he was convicted of molesting a 13-year-old boy was finally sentenced on Friday morning after being brought back to the U.S. last year.
Gregorio Martinez, 49, a native of the Dominican Republic, was found guilty in 2015 of molesting the 13-year-old inside the boy’s mother’s minivan in a North Bergen parking lot on June 10, 2012.
Martinez was out on bail and fled to Nicaragua and Honduras. His flight from justice was chronicled in a special report by NJ Advance Media. He was eventually apprehended and brought back to the U.S. last year, but a scheduling conflict and his change of lawyers delayed his sentencing.
During his trial in 2015, Martinez was also charged with sexually assaulting a 19-year-old man, and after his conviction he was charged with two more sexual assaults of two other 19-year-old men. He was also accused by a parishioner of molesting another boy during his time in Central America.
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