When a jury acquitted Carlos Villarreal on July 30 of Level 4 felony child molesting, they instead convicted him of a lower misdemeanor battery charge.
At his sentencing Thursday, his lawyer Steve Haddad successfully argued he should get time served.
After Villarreal was charged in January 2021 in the Lake County case, Hobart Police arrested him in a SWAT raid in August 2021 at a home on the 200 block of S. Virginia Street. He had a warrant in North Carolina for a sexual offense on a child and indecency involving a child. Hobart Police got a tip Villarreal was packing up a van that day.
The North Carolina case was dismissed in May 2022, lawyers said.
Villarreal spent almost a year in jail, from August 2021 to June 2022, before he was extradited for the Indiana child molesting case.
Deputy Prosecutor Arturo Balcazar had opposed a sentence of time served, saying only the last month — after the North Carolina case was dismissed — should count.
Haddad countered all of it should count toward his Lake County case since he had an extradition hold hanging over his head the entire time.
Judge Salvador Vasquez agreed, saying Villarreal was “not free to go.”
Villarreal, 39, of Hobart, declined to speak in court. Haddad said he would not appeal.
After it became apparent Villarreal would be released, the victim’s relatives appeared visibly upset. As she stood to leave, one woman muttered it was like Villarreal had gotten away with murder, implying the justice system had failed them.
In a charging affidavit, Hobart Police wrote the preteen girl told her parents Villarreal had been “touching” her several times in summer and fall 2020 at his house.
In the summer of 2020, he closed a bedroom door and started “tickling” the girl under her shirt and bra, an affidavit alleges, and then held her when she tried to get away.
She said something similar had happened “many times,” including in October 2020.
The child accused him of groping her on Oct. 30, 2020.
mcolias@post-trib.com
