NORRISTOWN – A 54-year-old man who split his time between Souderton and Puerto Rico will spend at least two decades in prison for having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl in the borough.
Pedro Montes-Felix, who listed addresses in Puerto Rico and along North Second Street in Souderton, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 20 to 40 years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to charges of statutory sexual assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with someone under 16 years of age in connection with incidents that occurred in July 2019.
Montes-Felix decided to plead guilty shortly after his trial began. Judge Gary S. Silow imposed the sentence as part of a plea agreement. Montes-Felix will receive credit for the two years he spent in jail while awaiting trial on the charges.
In addition to the prison term, Montes-Felix will have to report his address to state police once he is released from prison in order to comply with Pennsylvania’s Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.
Other charges of aggravated indecent assault, corruption of a minor, indecent assault and unlawful contact with a minor were dismissed against Montes-Felix as part of the plea agreement.
An investigation began on Aug. 25, 2019, when the mother of a 14-year-old girl contacted Souderton police to report that her daughter had sex with an older man who knew the victim’s family.
“She related to me that she became aware of some questionable behavior between her daughter and Pedro Montes-Felix,” Souderton Detective Joseph J. Rudner Jr. alleged in the arrest affidavit.
Montes-Felix subsequently went to police “and stated that he wanted to turn himself in for a crime that he had committed,” according to the criminal complaint.
“When I asked him what crime he had committed, he said that he had sex with a 14-year-old girl,” Rudner alleged, adding Montes-Felix admitted that his contact with the girl included various sexual acts on several occasions at a location in Souderton.
“When Montes-Felix was asked why he came to the police station to confess and turn himself in he told me that it was the guilt and shame that was weighing on him and that he knew what he had done was wrong,” Rudner added in the arrest affidavit.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Gabriella Glenning. Defense lawyer Julia Lucas represented Montes-Felix.
