Central Islip man pleads guilty in sexual abuse of girl over four-year period, Suffolk DA says

A 28-year-old Central Islip man has pleaded guilty to abusing a young girl over a four-year period and is expected to be sentenced to 12 years in prison, as well as 18 years of post-release supervision, Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced Thursday.

 Authorities said Yonathan Ramirez Argueta repeatedly sexually abused the girl between May 2018 and last April — from the time she was 5 years old, until she disclosed the abuse at age 9 — and then "immediately" fled to Georgia, where he attempted to board a one-way flight to Central America.

Those plans were thwarted when Ramirez Argueta was arrested and extradited back to Suffolk County, the district attorney's office said in a statement.

He pleaded guilty Wednesday before Suffolk County Court Judge Karen M. Wilutis to an indictment charging him with first-degree and second-degree course of sexual conduct against a child, as well as with endangering the welfare of a child.

It was not immediately clear how Ramirez Argueta knew the victim.

Ramirez Argueta, who was represented by a Legal Aid Society attorney, is scheduled to be sentenced March 22. Tierney said the plea deal saves the young girl from having to testify at trial.

"No child should ever once be subjected to such abuse, let alone to have it last over the course of four years in their young life," Tierney said in the statement, adding: "This defendant picked a defenseless innocent child to abuse and what he did is simply unacceptable."

By John Valenti

john.valenti@newsday.com

John Valenti, a reporter at Newsday since 1981, has been honored nationally by the Associated Press and Society of the Silurians for investigative, enterprise and breaking news reporting, as well as column writing, and is the author of “Swee'pea,” a book about former New York playground basketball star Lloyd Daniels. Valenti is featured in the Emmy Award-winning ESPN 30-for-30 film “Big Shot.”